


Ball and Chain

by SwissPear



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies), mad max - Fandom
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Eventual Romance, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Introspection, Max Comes Back, Post-Movie(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pregnancy, Resolved Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Survival, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 17:57:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 41
Words: 47,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4796879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwissPear/pseuds/SwissPear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Long, drawn out unresolved sexual tension, with some action plot to justify it. Max comes back, Furiosa tries to secure the water supply, confused wives, evil wives, short-lived attempts at romance, ferocious warpups, a radio, and a lot of water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The line of motorcycles was growing more distant as she tried to pull away.

“Fine bones underneath all that grime…” one of the scavengers prodded at her.

They forced her face around to analyze her features. She could still make out the receding bikes in the corner of her eye.

“She’ll be an angel when we get her in white… I bet you she’ll be a shiny diamond like the rest, just get her out of these rags and into something more delicate”

They pulled and tugged at her perfect riding jacket as her fidgeting turned to panicked protest. The jacket was hers; she had earned it her mother said. She had finally gotten one of her own like the mothers... who were now just a distant speck on the horizon, moving farther away. Didn’t these vultures realize she was running out of time to catch up?

They ripped her jacket off despite her struggles, quickly twirling her into white gossamer cloth, silver threads catching the light.

Their dismayed silence made her attention leave the bikes for a moment.

“oh…”

“not quite the perfect diamond I had hoped…”

“well nevermind girlie, our mistake.  Off you go now”

She was pushed into the sand as they pulled the silver cloth back off of her, the iron door slamming shut behind her.

She hit the sand on her hands and bare knees, looking back at the door dejected and bewildered.

But then in a panic she remembered the bikes.  Reeling up, she spun around, searching for a last trace of the cloud of dust. Frantic, she spun faster, but only saw the burnt orange sand and stark blue sky.

They were gone.

There was nothing now: no cars, no vault door, just her and the sand. With each breath it grated at her lungs, drying up every ounce of moisture. The wind whipped against her skin, slowly calcifying her as she stood there, completely alone in the wilderness.

\-----------

Furiosa’s eyes flitted open, slowly separating herself from the childish images. Beyond her faithful chamber door, someone was once again asking her for help. Savoring the cool cup of water by her bed, she dragged herself up to undo the heavy latch, shaking off the growing ache for rest.


	2. Chapter 2

The 5 scavengers stood around the rough map drawn in the sand, Flake pointing out an area to the South.

“Here, below the south tower, is where you need to stay keen.”

The tall man with the missing eye looked skeptical “I still don't understand what we’re looking for.” 

“Anything other than rock and sand among the rubble. Just dig until you find something.”

“And if anyone gives us trouble?” the tall scavenger asked.

“Then let them take you in, they've turned soft now that the Immortan’s gone. They'll question you, probably even give you some water, then send you on your way. And you, you get even more info on how things are running on the inside.”

“Hardly seems worth the 10 units of juice.” a skinny, twitchy woman grumbled.

Flake paused with a small smile. “Ah my friend, now there's the cherry on top.” Flake pulled out a small satchel hanging from around his neck. “Getting inside is your chance for the grand prize” he said as he poured a collection of the now precious bullets into his hand.  “You get inside, get a shot at the queen bee, my man will give you all the water you could ever want, plus a new ride. Bullets for water my friend, best deal in town.”

The scavengers paused for a moment, before the skinny woman licked her parched lips. “Give it here,”  she demanded as she greedily outstretched a hand. Two other scavengers followed, eager to not lose out. 

Flake gleefully distributed out the bullets, walking down the line of recruits. “Just three each now, no more. Rare commodity nowadays.”

Flake continued down the line, the short balding man shaking his head, “I’ll just dig.” 

Shrugging, Flake moved along, coming finally to the quiet man, the one with the fierce look in his eyes. He was eyeing the short bald man, contemplating him, before looking to Flake.

“I need 4” the quiet man said.

Flake raised an eyebrow. “And why should I give you more than these fine ladies and gentleman?

The quiet man pulled down his scarf to reveal the brand on his neck.  “Cuz I’ve been inside before...I know it will take 4 bullets to take care of her”.

Flake eyed him for a moment. On the surface, he looked just as tattered and run down as these other low lifes, but he held Flake’s gaze with a more steady, measured look. 

Flake gave a short snort of a laugh. “Ha!, I like you man.  All right, take this guy’s” he gestured to the short man next to him. “I don’t like the look of this guy anyhow.” he said in a fake whisper. 

As the others went back to studying the map, the quiet man took the 4 bullets, loaded them into his weapon, and immediately shot the first scavenger in the group.

There was a flurry of surprise as they scrambled to react, but he had already shot the second, and then the third. Flake was left scrambling on his hands and feet, ducking for cover under a car, looking for some kind of weapon. The stranger’s footsteps were following him, stalking him. An angry hand reached under the car and pulled him out by the foot as he frantically tried to grab at the sand to resist. The stranger slammed him against the car, a crazed look in the eye, gun raised against Flake’s cheek.

“Who?” The stranger growled.

“Wha-, I don’t…” Flake stammered, trying to get a grip.

“Who wants Furiosa.” the stranger demanded.

“New man at the bullet farm! The Engineer. Getting thirsty, desperate, trying to find his way inside the tower for a drink” 

“What does he already know?, how many helping?”

“I don’t know! I just trade the juice.”

The man buried the tip of the gun under his chin, tightening his finger on the trigger.

Flake stammered, trying to think of anything that could save himself. “Lot’s, lot’s of thirsty people out there, more coming every day. And someone with access to the inside, some connection with one of the old wives-”

The man growled. “what do you mean?”

“I don’t know, I was just looking for some trade. Something about the one not afraid of falling into the sky, the wife who escaped, the princess.  She's been helping get access. Please, please, take the wheels, the juice. I don’t…I don’t know any more.”

The stranger glared at him, gauging if he knew more. Finally a grunt, a loosening of his grip, and then a shot.

 

The quiet man took what he could in scavenge and drove off, leaving nothing behind but the short bald man, standing unharmed, frozen in place with the shovel still in his hand. 


	3. Chapter 3

Max sipped at the scavenged water as he drove, feeling the relief of his parched throat as he glanced over at the stolen weapons. The adrenaline of the fight was fading away, the constant dull ache of thirst deserting him, and he was left again with nothing but time to think.  He caught his image in the rear-view mirror and forced himself to meet his eyes, before finally tilting the mirror to take in the empty wasteland stretching out behind him. He had smashed a similar mirror once in a moment of weakness, and had spent a week painstakingly putting it back together; they were too valuable to sacrifice. With nothing in view but the empty landscape though, the images, and the voices, started to find room to creep back in, his stomach tightening as a taste of bile started to rise in his throat.

  _Don’t_ ….he thought to himself, trying to hold the anxiety at bay.

 The thoughts came anyways. He blinked as he imagined the citadel crumbling into rockfall, eventually nothing more than a collapsing tower of sand.  Their voices echoed out to accuse him, asking him where he was.  When he finally managed to get back to them it was just their hands desperately reaching out of the sand, the choked screams coming from the ground as he helplessly tried to dig them out. The hands were inevitably enveloped by the sand and he was left there with nothing but sand for miles, the voices still battering him from all directions.

Max pulled over and threw up in the sand. Grimacing at the acrid taste in his mouth, he stared down at the now wasted puddle of food and water. After a moment, he gave in and stole a glance at the horizon behind him, squinting against the bright sand. With a sigh, he turned the car back, eagerly waiting for the hunger to take over again as he drove back.

Multiple times now he had driven resolutely into the wasteland, the citadel growing smaller in the mirror. Every time though, he would see some potential or imagined threat heading back the other way, the images of the worst case scenario filling in the empty horizon behind him. Inevitably he would give in and turning back towards the citadel, just to get close enough to confirm that it was still standing. For once he had actually succeeded in helping others stay alive, but now he was left constantly worrying about them, imagining the worst. Living or dead, everyone he met ended up haunting him. At least before he could disappear into the wasteland alone with his grief. Now he was stuck in a track between the wasteland and the citadel, driving a deeper rut in the sand with each pass. _She’ll be fine taking care of them_ he reminded himself.  

Once, in view of the citadel and near to running out of gas, he had stowed his car in a crevice to head out on foot in search of something to scavenge. It had been a week before he returned, with little to show, but enough water for a few days and barely enough gas for the next stretch of wasteland. He found his car still tucked away safe, but with two 20 liter jugs of juice sitting in the driver’s seat, “Fool” written in grease on the side.  A small smirk twitched on his lips, and he had left a gift of some seeds and old magnifying glass in its place before driving back off.

Occasionally, when either the images or thirst drove him back, he would stop back at that hiding spot. Something would always be waiting: gas, water, some food, and occasionally the treasure of a book. In the weeks or months between visits, he often used the empty pages of the books to continue drawing out a map of the area. Each time he returned, he would find a comfortable spot next to the gifts, take off his boots, and settle in to find what new treasures were left for him, comforted to see they still had plenty of resources to share.  He would often take a few days to transfer over his important notes to himself to the new book, leaving the old one for them filled with his observations and sketches from time on the road. Occasionally he would get notes in return, news of the area, and he began to guess whose handwriting was behind each inscription.

Now he found himself back at the spot sooner than usual, looking to hole up for a few days, Furiosa and the wives on his mind after his recent skirmish. It had been maybe 2 weeks since he had returned the last book, leaving notes on how the pass had been reopened, and some sort of new mining to the east of the bullet farm. The items were still there now, no one yet coming back to retrieve them. _It has only been 2 weeks_ , he reminded himself. He got settled on the ground next to them, washing his small container of sprouts with a squirt of water, drinking up the wash, a munching on a small ration of greens. He thumbed through the book, looking to add details about the men, the scavengers for hire. But soon he furrowed his brow, concerned. The pages with the most important details on the pass and mining, mainly for Furiosa, had been ripped out, messages destroyed. Suspicions started sinking in on what the man had said, someone passing information from the inside.

He stared at the wall across from him for a while, thoughts sinking in. He let out a sigh…. All that he had just done, and now he was hesitating to do the one thing that would probably help them the most. Just a short visit, enough to warn her that someone was trading information from the inside, that the notes were intercepted. His car needed some more parts anyhow.

\------

The next morning as he finally began gathering his things for the trip in, he caught his reflection in the rearview mirror…beard grown in, hair scraggly.  Rubbing his face, he took out his knife, and attempted to shave using the cracked mirror.


	4. Chapter 4

It was the Dag who first spotted him. Her short attention span still flitted actively even as she was laid up, growing weaker with the pregnancy. She had insisted on a bed by the window in the main room where Furiosa and the others strategized. There she would scan the growing crowds below with her telescope, sharing anything of interest with the others.

She had immediately recognized his figure as he attempted to squeeze past the persistent offers from the water scalpers. A smile spread on her face as she watched him stare up at the towering citadel with hesitation. “He’s here,” she said almost to herself. Louder now, turning to the others “he’s back.”

Across the room, Furiosa froze over the map she had been pouring over, an imperceptible turn of her head in response.

\-----------  
Cheedo and Capable had protested, but the Dag insisted on joining them to greet the raising platform. Furiosa stood back and watched the three of them, providing a calm presence in response to their excitement. On the inside though, she itched with self-consciousness. She admitted to herself that she had thought of what she would say or do if ever she saw him again, some sort of warm welcome or thanks. But now that he was here, nothing she had imagined seemed quite right. She kept up her stoic appearance as the platform came into view and she found herself staring at a small beaten up VW bug. Looking up to the driver’s side, she saw him then, staring back at her with an attentive, but a bit lost, expression. She had a moment to catch his gaze, and she relaxed seeing that he was as uncertain as she was. 

The platform clanged into place, and he was stepping out with a few bags and a book in hand as the girls skipped up to greet him, pushing Dag in her makeshift wheelchair. His soft smile disappeared for a moment when he spotted the Dag, weak and pale with a swollen belly, but Cheedo quickly distracted him with questions on the book, chatting away, and Capable took one of the small bags from his hand. The Dag eyed him, and randomly noted “You just shaved.” He glanced at her uncomfortably as Capable told him about the food they had waiting for him.

Furiosa waited patiently, and as they walked towards her, he finally had a moment to look up at her.

A touch of a smile reaching her eyes, she said simply “Welcome back.”

He responded with the smallest twitch of a smile and a nod. 

Cheedo tugged at his sleeve. “Come on Max, this way, let us show you.” Max followed them down the corridor as Furiosa fell in behind. He hung back a bit to walk by her side.

“We need to talk,” he said quietly.

She nodded, comforted by a practical rationale behind his visit. “Give them an hour to welcome you and then I promise to find you somewhere with peace and quiet.”

 

\------   
They walked into a room that would have been comfortable but for the amount of random people constantly milling in and out. He stole a glance back at Furiosa, but she was nowhere in sight. Instead, they sat him down at a large table, setting a heavy pitcher of water and a glass in front of him. His edginess around the crowd was distracted by his fascination with the pitcher of water. He stared as they poured fresh water into the glass with a succession of glugs. A disorienting feeling of something exotic, but completely familiar, crept in as he sat at a table with a cool glass of water. He had a distant memory that sitting at a pub used to be normal. He looked up from his thoughts to see the Dag sitting across from him, eyeing him curiously as she fidgeted with a tendril of hair. He was quickly pulled out of his nostalgia and grew restless as he noticed the typical odd collection of people bustling around him.

Max jumped as a man covered in scrolls of tattoos sidled up to him, pointed to a blank spot of skin under his arm “I have space for you here, come tell me your words.”

Capable shoed him away “Not now story man, leave the man be.”

Capable and Cheedo were bickering with a hunchback man over the food, and he scowled at them as they tore a plate of food away. Cheedo came over and placed the plate in front of Max, and he distracted himself from the crowds with the smell of roasted potatoes next to some beans and fresh greens. “We’ve been getting Chef to teach us how to cook” Max saw the grumbling man out of the corner of his eye, then quickly ducked as the Chef angrily threw a bundle of carrots at them. Cheedo added with a hint of sarcasm, “he’s always eager to show us how to improve.”

The girls sat with him and peppered him with questions as he focused on the food, talking across him to fill in stories to the notes they had made on the edges of the books. He had thought this would be overwhelming, but they didn’t ask too much of him except for a few yes or no questions, a couple of descriptive words here or there as they did most of the talking. He wondered now where the other one was, the dark short-haired one he hadn’t seen yet.

The feeling of familiarity crept back in as he sat there with the simple extravagance of a fork and knife, the light of a candle isolating their small circle around a dinner table. They had followed the glass of water with some sort of crude liquor, and the sleepiness of the long day and full meal was disorienting. As Cheedo cleared his plate, the Dag proudly showed him a plant with the saddest little tomato he'd ever seen. Cheedo asked him which of the books he had liked best. Distracted by something Capable was showing him, he replied “Umh, probably Gulliver’s Travels. It was one of my wife’s favorites.” Cheedo froze next to him, but he didn’t notice as Furiosa walked in, an hour later as promised.


	5. Chapter 5

Furiosa led Max through a series of corridors, steadily working higher to the top levels of the Citadel. They walked in silence as she kept her eyes forward, but could feel his presence behind her. She pushed aside the many questions running through her head. She knew enough, and kept moving forward. She noticed though that she still couldn’t bring herself to say his name out loud, it still just felt like too intimate of an admission.

As the walked, she thought back to the first time she saw him, glancing over from the war rig to notice the poor bloodbag, strung up in front of that pack of wild animals that had surrounded her most of her life. He had momentarily caught her off guard with that glance back at her. She had expected the typical look of sheer terror, another jackrabbit caught in the jaws of those berserk hyenas, but instead he looked back at her with... what? weariness? There was something cognizant and aware there, meeting her eyes.

Later, when he had staggered towards them, growling for water, she was impressed this creature had survived the storm, but was comforted that she had him figured, another crazed beast just hungry for water. She realized too late that she had underestimated him; he fought smarter than she had expected even when weak. When he hadn’t killed her, she was momentarily taken aback, but gathered herself to realize that he may not be completely feral, and he just wanted escape. She could still use that; channel it to their purpose.

What had stunned her though, was when she had crawled back in after the canyon and he had simply handed her one of the guns he had worked so hard to take from her. She had been prepared to slowly bring him to their side, strategize how to stop wasting energy fighting each other. Instead, he had done it himself. … _Okay then...right, good_ , she had thought to herself as she eyed him questioningly, now able to continue without one more thing to have to manage.

She could figure out what drove most men, but she couldn’t quite pin him down. When the Vuvalini had asked what to do with him, she could only reply that he was a bit of a mystery, but seemed skilled, reliable, and only interested in escape. She could understand his desire to stay and help with the wives, empathize with it after her own experience. She felt it too, the possibility of helping them survive to pave the way to something better.  Why he had fought so hard to save _her_ though, why he had been so wrecked and desperate, continued to distract her after the wives had recounted more about the drive back.

For now, she could at least help him find somewhere with peace and quiet.

They finally arrived at one of the upper levels of the citadel, coming out to the open air where the catwalks circled and connected the towers. To one side, a small room was carved out of the rock, protected from the wind, but with a view of the surrounding landscape. A small cot, candle, and pitcher of water were already waiting there.

She turned to face him to find him earnestly looking back at her. “No one comes up here, and you won’t have to worry about being bothered like down below. Plus we could use an extra pair of eyes up here. You can signal us if you need anything with this” she tugged on the rope connected to the bell below.

She fell silent at that, giving him space to tell her why he had come.

He eyed the room for a bit, noting the exits, and finally spoke. “You seem to be doing okay.”

She sighed, showing her fatigue. “For now.” She sat at the edge of the cot, feeling the urge to get all the pressures of the last few months off her chest with someone who could understand. “We quickly established an alliance with a man I trust at Gastown, but the Bullet Farm is another story. Their supplies were depleted by the chase, and we managed to destroy anything remaining before they knew what had happened, but I couldn’t get to the man with the know-how. They will gain back strength soon. For now, we are starving them out. Even if we get cut off from Gastown, we can survive here locked down for a while” She paused, frowning. “More people come everyday for water, and we can defend the Citadel from a siege, but can’t defend all those people. And now the strong people have started hoarding water from the weak, some trading water and food back to the Bullet farm.”

She stopped and realized he was watching her, about to say something, but letting it pass.  Was that not what he had been asking her?

He seemed to be thinking. “The man with the know-how….the Engineer?”

She nodded.

“He is recruiting, paying men for info on citadel, access inside if possible”

She nodded again, this was not surprising, she had expected as much “Someone has been sneaking around inside, maybe once a month, but we haven’t found the source yet. How do you know this?”

“Came across a scavenger, recruiting people with inside access for him.  Also, someone had tampered with the last notes I left for you, ripped out notes on new mining by the Bullet Farm.”

“These men, are they still a threat?”

Max slowly shook his head. She watched him, guessing, but didn’t say anything. “Who is he?” he asked.

Furiosa shook her head with a sigh. “Just anarchy. Smart, too smart. Gets bored easy. Likes to  bash things together and see them go boom. He’s not a good leader, but that also makes him hard to predict.”

Now he hesitated “He mentioned info was coming from one of the wives. Is that...possible?”

At this she furrowed her brow, confused, then forcing herself to consider.

He offered, “Are there any other wives? Ones who have escaped before?”

“No... If they didn’t find a way to jump, they typically died in childbirth” she said matter-a-factly, still thinking. “The Dag, they all are keeping up hope, but it doesn’t look good.”

He looked away uncomfortably, “what about the other one?  Short-hair”

“Toast.”  she sighed. “She has left a few times, still angry at this place, and has been gone for a while this time.” She paused, then added “Think you could show us where you saw the new mining?”

Max nodded.

She stood up “This is good, anything else?”

He shook his head. Then, thinking: “Bullets for water.”

“What?”

“To deal with the hoarders below. You can’t keep giving away water for free, need to trade. You need bullets, and can help undermine the bullet farm, turn over the thirsty people to your side.”

She thought, then slowly nodded.  She might be tenacious and patient, but he was better at strategy. She went to leave and give him his space.  “I expect Capable or Cheedo will leave some food outside the door in the morning. You’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like,” he shuffled uncomfortably “but I would like to at least outfit you with a new car. Come and find me tomorrow in the shop and I’ll show you what I have in mind.”

Max gave a noncommittal grunt.

“Please think about it,” she said as she walked out “your car is embarrassing”

He gave a small laugh at that, before sitting hesitantly on the cot and scanning his new surroundings.


	6. Chapter 6

They knew his name now. The growing crowd of voices calling for him from beneath the sand. The hands reached up to him, and as he tried to help pull them out, more reached up to desperately grasp at him. They were surrounding him now as they towered above him, trapping him in the wall of arms as they closed in around him.

Max awoke with a start, alone in the foreign room with the morning light starting to pour in. He found himself on the floor, not quite used to the comfort of the cot. He greedily chugged the water by the bedside, and escaped the small room to look at the expansive view below .  There was a bustling crowd now, more activity than just the weak crawling of the Wretched he had seen before.

Eventually he forced himself to leave the isolation of the room. Opening the door, he found only an empty hall; no food left behind as Furiosa had thought. Instead, he wandered down the hallways  following his hunger , taking the time to investigate the new space, avoiding the crowds with the quieter corridors.

He finally came to the room where they had eaten the other night. He turned the corner to a connected room, some sort of kitchen, and saw Cheedo and Capable having a whispered argument. They stopped as they saw him enter, Cheedo glaring at him as Capable pushed her out into another room to continue their argument alone.

His eyes followed them as the door swung behind them, then  distracted himself  by the food spread on the table. He stole a bit of flat bread and cheese as he continued to explore the halls, his chewing slowing slightly as he remembered the mother’s milk and was left considering the source of the cheese.

He started to hear more voices as he came closer to where the platform had raised him up the day before. Around the corner he saw her, consulting with 2 teenage war boys over a car part. One of the boys looked up as he came in and she followed his gaze, giving a genuine smile when she saw him walk in. She gave one of the dopey eyed war boys a pat on the arm as she left them to greet Max.

"Come on, let me show you what I have in mind," she said, an undercurrent of pride coming through. She led him to a repair bay, and stood aside so he could see a sleek and strong looking car. A hodgepodge of different parts, it didn't have the nostalgia of his interceptor, but the car looked solid and fast. He suddenly remembered that it had been Furiosa who ultimately destroyed his old Interceptor, crushed it in the act of trying to protect him, finally destroying that vehicle that allowed him to wander alone in the wasteland. 

"We found the V8 a few weeks ago, and have been working on it since then. Needs a bit more work, but we can adapt it to what you want." She watched him as he nodded approvingly. Max walked around it, checking it out, then stopped dead when he saw the wheel, his head snapped back up to her.

She smiled at his surprised expression. "We found it in a pile of scraps a while ago, I figured out that it might have been from your old car." She watched him as he slowly got into the driver’s seat, meaningfully placing his hands on the wheel. He spent some time getting the feel of it, as she leaned into the driver’s side window next to him.

"I'll need to work on the clutch, add a second tank, and expand some space in the back for a place to sleep." He listed off. The last comment made her a bit sad and jealous at the same time, his ability to take off with his own space any time.

She watched him, thinking for a moment how long she could get away with. "Can you stay one week? Should be done by then."

He seemed to hesitate, but finally acquiesced and nodded.

The worked together through most of the day, not talking most of the time, just working in sync. She had left at one point to take care of some other business, and came back to find a group of war pups sneaking in curiously to get a closer look at Max, probably one of the first full life males they had seen in awhile. As one pup dared to get closer, a small piece of scrap came flying out from under the hood from where Max was working, just happening to miss the pup but sending them all scattering.  She watched as the game kept up; Max shoeing them away but each time letting them creep closer . It made her smile, but she kept back, never comfortable around children. They were too easy to manipulate, too eager, and it had always just felt wrong to be around them.

One pup finally dared to go up and hand Max a wrench that had just gone flying, and they ran off proud of their boldness. Furious went to stand next to him as he continued to fiddle under the hood, that cowlick of hair still pointing up awkwardly. He straightened, attempting to wipe the grease off his hands as he turned to lean back against the hood.

"You must be hungry. Did Cheedo and Capable bring you enough food this morning?" She said as she watched him wipe the grease from his hands.

He paused "um...no, didn't leave anything."

She looked at him questioningly, brow furrowed.

"Found enough food though. Would rather keep working."

They continued working before Max eventually disappeared to his chamber, and Furiosa reminded herself to talk to the wives.


	7. Chapter 7

She didn't have to go far. The next day she found Cheedo pacing in front of her door. The heated expression in Cheedo’s face seemed to dim as she grew a bit timid in front of Furiosa.

“Is Max staying?” Cheedo finally blurted out, trying to regain her resolve.

“That’s up to him” Furiosa replied, watching her.

“…of course it is” Cheedo grumbled.

Furiosa was confused by the bitterness “…Why?” 

Silence.

“Cheedo…” Furiosa prodded, growing impatient.

Cheedo stood with arms crossed, staring angrily at some spot in the hallway. She finally spat angrily “He had wives! Did you know that? We’re serving him, giving him our food. Why is he here now?!"

Furiosa was silent for a moment, considering. They really knew nothing about him, only a few days, but owed him something, some trust.

“Not all men used to treat wives like Joe did…You have all those books, you know that”

“All the books Joe gave us, the ones he picked out, where the loving wives doted on their amazing man, the great hero and savior.” Cheedo was finally meeting her eyes, regaining her confidence.

Furiosa sighed, not knowing what to say. It was possible he wanted something, but everything told her that wasn't true. He was too withdrawn, avoidant, just living out some sort of penance. She leaned against the corridor wall, searching for some sort of response, reminding herself to soften her tone for Cheedo. "The Vuvalini, they chose to live without men, even before the world burned. I never really questioned why, it was just the way it was.” she paused, thinking back.  “They used to say that we all had animal hungers underneath our human side, men just felt some hungers stronger than we did. It was draining though, having someone stronger than you, with more hunger than you...for you, around all the time. They could deal with it if needed. They knew how to outlast, patiently redirect that hunger, but it was exhausting I suppose. Sometimes though, a mother would go with a man, willingly, a man she liked, sometimes coming back, occasionally with a child, sometimes never returning. She would be teased if she returned, but it was always seen as her choice, a happy choice.”  

Cheedo was trying to keep up her angry resolve, but her fear and uncertainty started to show through. "But why would they choose that? Why would anyone choose to be a breeder when they already had somewhere like the green place?"

Furiosa opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, not knowing what to say. She rubbed her head. "I suppose they actually liked some of the men, men not like Joe, whom they trusted not to take too much, whom they could want to be around".

Cheedo had become quieter. "How do we know? If we can trust them, if we should like them around.” Cheedo's anger had abated, she seemed to be thinking now. “Should we want Max around?” she glanced up at Furiosa “....Do you?”

“I don't really know what to…” Furiosa shifted uncomfortably, not really wanting to have this conversation. Finally she deflected with a “you should talk to Capable about it.”

"What if he asks for that, and I freeze again, what if I don't know what to do, what if I don't know…” Cheedo seemed lost, a bit panicked. 

Furiousa fought to remind herself to show patience "I think he just wants to be left alone. He just came to give me some information. I'll try and talk to him though if that makes you feel better.”


	8. Chapter 8

Later that day Furiosa climbed the long walk up to the catwalks, escaping the hustle below to go and find Max, jealous of his quiet room. He was keeping busy, working on a small car part he had brought back with him, and he welcomed her in when she brought some fresh water.

She sat on the edge of his cot and hesitated for a bit, fiddling with a car part in her hand.

"We need to talk"

He looked up briefly from what he was doing to read her expression, grunted, and continued at his task.

"Some of the girls are confused….they heard you mention wives"

At this he froze in what he was doing, but then continued slowly, cautiously.

“It makes them wary, they only know what it was like here before, what that meant. It might help if you explained, maybe you could….” She could see him tense, the slightest scowl reaching his lips. She continued cautiously, watching his reaction “…explain, if you had many wives-”

‘ONE” he suddenly snapped, “one wife”. He gave her a look that shut her up, holding her gaze for a moment, before finally turning away.

He was silent for a long time, clearly not wanting to be having this conversation. Finally he started again “Yes, I had a wife. She was my wife…and I was her husband.”  A pause. “It wasn’t like here...before. It was a good thing, for both of us” He seemed to try and say something more but only managed a  “... long time ago.”

She stared out at the dark sky, taking in his reaction, remembering that old notion that there used to be something good to be lost. It was a reminder that things were once better, and this world she was adapted to was worse. “They may never experience that now, a better version, after what he did… It just seems like one more thing he took from them…”

He shoulders seemed to soften a bit, less tense. “...it’s just something to be lost.”

Furiosa leaned her head against the wall, staring up at a corner of the room, for the first time in a long time letting the sorrow of their whole situation weigh on her. She suddenly felt weary. “Then what’s the point?  If there’s no room for hope, then what’s the point to any of this?“

silence for a while

“If you’re tired, then you should sleep” Max finally said, back still turned to her.

She stared past him for a while, letting the exhaustion sink in.

\-----------------

Max sat back on the floor against the wall, looking over at Furiosa passed out on the cot. _Why was he still here? He should just take the car and go._ He had tried that before, expecting to look back and see the look of confusion and disappointment when Furiosa noticed him disappearing into the crowd. Instead she had been watching him with a look of warm understanding, a hint of smile in her eyes for the first time. Without the judgement, he could actually savor one last look to take her in, she still looking statuesque even when bruised and battered. She never demanded his help or expected him to take care of things more than she expected it from anyone else. And of course that was when he decides to actually turn back to volunteer his help. When she had offered him a bike, it took a while to realize it was a show of gratitude, no strings attached, instead of an attempt to drag him back in.

He just could see it reflected in her, the empty success of being a survivor, and how much you risked to expect more when you knew better. It killed him to see her going through that, the cracks in the hard exterior. He had known there was nothing better out there, no Green Place, but had to admit he had begun to root for her, hoped she was right. And then he had to watch it all come crashing down, the hope that must have driven her for years, as the pessimism was right again; home was gone, there was no going back. She had kept up a good face, but she must have known she was taking them off to a slow death of dehydration and hunger, 100 days until they realized that they didn’t have enough supplies to turn around and make it back. There was no better option though, no where else they could go. _There’s no point_ , he reminded himself, _everything was dying anyways_.  He knew what he would do, steal away some supplies from the citadel while it was undefended, he could even slow down the war party with the pass. If he was her, that’s what he would do. If he was her….

She would be him. He had realized that in 100 days she would be the same as him, looking on helplessly as she failed everyone that had relied on her. She would watch them all starve and somehow be the last one surviving. She was just about to step off into an abyss he had been lost in for years.

He remembered the nagging voice: _It’s actually a good plan, the pass. Just go tell her. You don’t have to stay, just go tell her that there’s another option._ He already knew that he was going to stay though as he rushed to catch up to them, suddenly waking up while starting to speak, trying to convince her, making an effort. From then on he was solely focused on making sure she succeeded in her goal, in getting them home. Once that was done, he could go.

He left Furiosa passed out on the cot to explore the extent of the catwalk, turning his focus to checking the surroundings. It was a full moon, giving him some visibility to see the details of the rocks on the towers of the citadel.

It was a good defensive position, no easy way to reach inside. Still though, he saw creeping shadows everywhere, the threat of someone slinking inside. As he walked back, a particularly human-like shadow flittered ahead of him and he froze. He strained to catch more movement, but saw nothing more but the shadows of the clouds passing by the moon. He felt himself breath again as he convinced himself it was nothing, but still cautiously walked back to the alcove with the cot.

His footsteps slowed as Furiosa and the cot came back into view, and the panic rose back up as he saw her lying there, completely still, with her face ashen pale in the moonlight. Inky shadows were crossing over her face, and he watched unblinkingly for any signs of breath. Terrified of what he might find, he finally forced himself to reach over to her limp figure and give her a small shake on the shoulder.

\---------

Furiosa woke with a start, confused where she was, and realized that Max was kneeling in front of her, eyeing her warily, hand still on her shoulder from shaking her awake.

“Sorry…” She froze for a second; confused that she had managed to fall asleep with another person in the room. “I promised you somewhere to yourself, you’re probably exhausted” and she got up to leave him his cot, as he remained kneeling in the same place.


	9. Chapter 9

The next day Furiosa and a few of the older war boys were guarding over the distribution of food and water as usual, Cheedo warmly greeting familiar faces as Furiosa looked on to see how their new system was working. The word was getting out that anything more would have to be in trade, especially anything that brought in munitions.  Two unfamiliar teens surreptitiously came up to them, glancing around furtively before placing two bags on the table. As one leaned over, Furiosa could see the markings of the bullet farm etched on his chest, the lines of his ribs visible underneath. She leaned over Cheedo and peered into the bags: gunpowder and shell casings. Passing them extra bread and a sack of potatoes with the water, she held their gaze long enough to say “More.” They nodded, then quickly stole away with the food, barely getting 10 feet away before devouring half of it. 

She looked up to see Capable bringing Max along outside, using the excuse of needing help carrying something to coax him outside with the crowds. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cheedo look up and take notice, before quickly averting her gaze to the couple in front of her. They came to join at the table, Capable relieving Cheedo, and Furiosa pushing the new bullet farm goods to where Max could see. He nodded with a satisfactory grunt, before going off to keep busy helping to unload containers of food. She watched him moving to avoid crowd, some woman interrupting his escape to ask him for help, then noticed Cheedo watching, standing back and observing his interactions with the woman. Later, he was sitting, watching the crowd, when Cheedo sat down next to him. He gave her a nod, but then did a slow double take when she continued sitting there, looking at him expectantly. He shifted awkwardly, clearing his throat, and finally got up to help carry some water jugs, just to find Cheedo still tagging along. Furiosa watched, a mixture of amusement and concern, as Cheedo kept following, testing out her interactions with him. Furiosa finally pulled Capable aside, asked her to have Max help carry something back inside to give him some excuse to escape. 

She walked alone as the day quieted down, and took stock of the crowds milling about, still orderly for now, but she was beginning to worry if the food could keep pace with the crowds.  As long as she kept them fed, they were manageable, but having to maintain the Citadel and Gastown crowds was going to take its toll. She grabbed a basket of bread to take it back inside, allowing herself a bite once she was out of sight of the crowd. 

For not the first time, she wished Splendid was here instead. She had that strong warmth Furiosa would never have, knew how to inspire hope in others. In the end, she had been the most human of all of them, daring to reach for something higher. Furiousa had dismissed them all as pretty pets for so long, so much easier to think them ungrateful little birds that complained in spite of their freedom from thirst and starvation.  _ Sure, I’ll help you escape, go ahead and see what you’ve been missing, and see how long you last before begging to be taken back _ . But the look in Splendid’s eyes, the resolve, made Furiosa shrink inside. She wasn’t complaining, or naive, she was willing to give up all those creature comforts for some chance at humanity, for something more, something Furiosa had never succeeded in doing. Most of all, she had beat Furiosa at her own game, taking advantage of Furiosa’s anger against Joe to get their escape. That trip where Furiosa felt the rising panic of realizing she could no longer keep discounting them as separate, as lesser things to be used on her way back to civilization. And just that fast, she was gone, sucked under the wheels with the tiniest slip of the foot. 

A bit of bread dropped from the basket, rolling away from her onto the dusty ground. As she bent to pick it up, one of the feral dogs that had started to find their way to the citadel spotted it, and let out a growl, challenging her over the food. Studying the small and scrappy dog underneath, she calmly shot out a hand, clamping its muzzle shut. The dog looked surprise for a moment, and as she forced it to meet her eyes it began to shift uncomfortably. “No.” she said simply, waiting for a look of submission, before releasing her grip. The dog gave a soft whine, licked her hand, as she handed it half of the bread and turned to walk inside. 


	10. Chapter 10

The dreams were invading his sleep again. Max was leaning over Furiosa, watching her face grow pale and lifeless. He felt that same panicked rush to give her something, anything, to keep her here. Remembering the tubing, he connected it between them, blood running through the pulsing connection. He watched the blood flow through and seep to her arm, viscous and dark. It hit her skin and reached her veins, but instead of the oxygenated red filling her, it turned to a black thick oil. Max looked on in panic, seeing the black poison spiderweb up her arm, and he furiously tried to rip out the tubing, stop his poison from spreading, but the chain lashed them together. He scratched and clawed at the metal clamped on his wrist but couldn't free himself, trying now to rip off the mask covering his face. He watched in horror as the black crept up her neck, spreading across her pale stricken face until finally seeping into her open eyes.

Max shot up with a start, the familiar feeling of trying to shake off the nightmare. He sat up for a while, and finally followed the feeling of restlessness to get up and walk around

He walked along the catwalks, the night bright and still with the blue glow of the stars. It was peaceful and cool compared to the crowds of the orange dusty day. 

He froze suddenly when he saw the Dag up ahead. She had always seemed a bit ethereal, but now the pregnancy and weakness made her appear almost ghostly. Standing there, staring at the starlight, the only wife still wearing the white. He had done his best to avoid her when below, so vulnerable with the swollen belly and stick thin arms.

She finally turned to look at him, frozen where he was. Smiling gently at him, she warmly cradled her pregnant belly.

"My baby is killing me" she said calmly, watching him. "….It will be born just to die. Like this whole planet." She turned her face to bask in the light of the stars. "But the stars, my baby will still get to feel the light of the stars on its face."

He stood there silently with her for a while, basking in the cool light. Finally he helped her back down to her room as the dawn began to grow on the horizon.


	11. Chapter 11

Furiosa found him the next day, still sitting in a pensive mood.

“Hey” she said as she interrupted his thoughts. “Think you can show me the mining today? Test out your car while we’re at it.  The weather should be clear for another day before a storm rolls in.”

She followed him out on one of the bikes, keeping pace as he tested out the new car, his driving becoming more playful as he got a handle of the car and the wasteland opened up. As they came up to a familiar spot in the road, she was inspired to zip ahead, him swerving to follow, and she led him to a steep, but manageable slope that led to a bowl in the sand, perfect for digging into sharp turns. Max followed her pace as she led him to the more fun features in the sand, until he pulled ahead to find a new maneuver, she changing course to meet the challenge, feeling a smile creeping on her face as they played off each other. They were driving abreast of one another now, she could see him out of the corner of her eye, as they both tried to pick up speed on the straight away, finally spinning out as a field of boulders rose up before them. 

Furiosa met his eyes as she caught her breath, him sitting there with a tanned forearm resting on the the driver’s side window, the same half smile on his face.  “Come’on Fool, I haven’t got all day.”  she smirked at him. He gave her a playfully incredulous look back while shifting into gear, and continued to lead her to the mines.

They laid side by side on the ridge above the expanse, Max handing her the binoculars after studying the horizon for a while. 

“There, you can see the movement...coming out of the depression in the sand. Before it was just digging, looks like they’re actually collecting something now.”

Furiosa frowned as she watched. “It’s so far from Bullet farm. How are they transporting anything back with limited gas?”

“Maybe they’re not?  Do you see anywhere they could be stockpiling something?” Max said as he leaned next to her shoulder

She searched for a bit. “There.” she handed him the binoculars as she took a swig of water from his canteen. 

Max studied the collection of small shed like structures. “Could you take it out?”

She shook her head. “It would take some planning, and even then would be a dangerous play….possible though.”

They stayed surveying for a few more hours until the shadows were growing long. Furiosa finally pulled herself from their position. “We should get back, it’ll be getting dark soon.”

\---------------

Max followed behind her bike on the way back, darkness already fallen as it got late and his eyes grew heavy. He already started to sense something was off when he saw her slow in front of him. He looked cautiously around, turning off his headlights, then realized he no longer saw the stars ahead of them, blackened out by something. Furiosa pulled up next to him, and as he opened the window, a gust of dusty wind slammed into him and he knew it before she spoke. “Sandstorm, we need to take cover”.

They found a lee in a small cliff of rocks ahead, and Furiosa stashed her bike as she fought back to Max through the wind, shouting so he could hear “We’ll have to hole up for the night, it could take hours to dig out after.”  He gave a curt nod, opened the door to the back sleeping space of the car for her, and helped her in with a hand on the small of her back as he shut the door in behind them. 

Furiosa lay awkwardly in the space in the back of the car, staring straight up at the ceiling in a vain effort to try and sleep while Max was lying in the space next to her. She realized she wanted to feel that ease again, or whatever it was that let her pass out in front of him before, to repeat it, but now that she had thought about it, it was gone, and she laid stick straight, staring at the ceiling, aware of him next to her, with no movement feeling quite natural. It wasn’t apprehension or readiness, just awareness. The awkwardness started to beat down on her, and it felt like he must have noticed her awkward rigidity, but there was only stillness at her side.  He’s likely sound asleep, or wondering why she was still awake. 

Max was wide awake. Instead of the normal adjustments into a comfortable sleeping position, they both lay too still. Max was conscious that any move towards or away from her might be taken with meaning he wanted to avoid. He could sense by her lack of movement she felt the same uneasiness, and the awkwardness started to weigh down on him. He should just turn away on his side, turn his back to her to create some separation between the two of them.  _ Just turn your back to her and get some sleep for god’s sake. It’s not like she’s going to take it as an insult.  _

The silence around Furiosa was broken when she heard Max give an awkward clearing of his throat, a shuffling of movement, just to give a quick squeeze of her hand, before turning on his side away from her to sleep. 

\---------------

Max found himself leaning over her again as she lay there, completely still. She was giving that whimper as he touched a hand to her pale face. The black oil though, kept spreading up the veins of her arm to reach her lips, then her eyes, she trying to speak in desperation but no words coming out. The wives glared at him in accusation. “It was your idea!, why would you tell us to come back?!” He desperately struggled to get the IV out, but the chain trapped it on him and he watched helplessly as the black oil spread across her face infecting her pleading eyes. The wives, angry, showed him to an open grave. “There, you lie there with her, it’s your fault” He lay side by side with Furiosa’s blackened corpse. They both lay, backs flat, staring up at the blue sky as the wives began to scrape shovels full of sand onto them. At first, he lay still as instructed as the sky disappeared behind the layer of sand, but it began to suffocate him, and as much as he tried to lie still, he began to panic to find air. He started to try and dig the sand away from his mouth and nose, and felt a spot of blue clearing away, when he heard the first whisper below.

“max…”

he paused, but the sand filled back in and he couldn’t breath again. Digging more furiously, Furiosa’s voice came again, more insisting and accusing.

“Max...”

He kept pushing through the sand, trying to find air, but now something was grabbing onto his arms and legs, wrapping around him like black tentacles and pulling him back from the air above.

“MAX!”

Furiosa’s arm was grabbing him, she was glaring at him and forcing him to look her in the eyes.

“You’re fine, come’on”

He kept trying to pull away as he realize her face and eyes were no longer black, but flesh and blue. He slowed a bit, trying to orient himself.

“Just a dream, come on now, you’re okay”

He reached out a hand and quickly tilted her face to the right and left, looking to see that her eye was no longer swollen shut, nothing poisoned by the black.

She paused, and added: “…I’m ok, it’s fine”

The inside of the car began to come clear, the howling of the sandstorm outside, as the dream started to separate from the reality.  He stared at her for a moment, her eyes looking back but starting to let go of the gaze as he came to.  With a sigh, his shoulders slumped as he dropped his hand from her face and dropped his head, releasing a low groan. She briefly rested her hand on the back of his neck “try and get some rest, it’s just the storm”.

He nodded, and she released her hand as he shifted back to lean against the wall of the car. She gave him one last holding glance, and then laid back down, her arm laid across her eyes. 

He stared at the ceiling as he tried and failed to slow his heartbeat. He needed to move, to do something, but the wind was still whipping outside, surrounding him and holding him inside. Slowly he began to calm, as his eyes grew heavy and sleep came back.

He leaned over to wake her, lifted her arm off her face, revealing blackened oil eyes underneath.

He awoke again with a jump. Every time he started to rest, he would fall into the image again. He looked back over at Furiosa’s lying figure. He needed to pace, to move, but the storm tightening around him.  He held his breath as he waited to see her breathe…something. The shadows moving over her were the only movement he could see. He tried to ignore her corpse looking figure and shut his eyes again. Blackened faces suffocating under the sand was the only thing he could see.  His heart rate wouldn’t slow, a cold sweat starting to spread. He buried his face in his hands briefly, then sat back up, shifted closer, trying to reassure himself with any sign of life without waking her, just to calm himself for a moment. Her pale hand laid outstretched, wrist up. 

Hesitantly, he rested two fingers on her wrist, just long enough to feel the steady beat of her pulse. He rested there for a moment longer, letting his heart rate try and match the pace. Finally he released the touch, having taken enough, and leaned back against the wall, resting his head back, realizing he had been holding his breath.

His focus on the sound of his breath was interrupted by Furiosa. “I’m sleeping, not dead.” she said, eyes still closed.

He snorted. “Sorry…didn’t mean to”

“I can feel your heart racing from here” she said, then a pause “not going away, huh?”

A grunt in return.

Silence, and then with an attempted air of resignation, she dropped her outstretched hand on his knee, as he dropped his head in surprise to stare at it.

“if that seems to help for some reason, we could both use the sleep”

He continued to stare at her wrist with another, almost imperceptible grunt. With a brief glance at Furiosa, he cradled her wrist in one calloused hand while he put his two fingers back to find the pulse. His head rested back against the wall, feeling the beat of her pulse as he begun to relax, the wind still whipping around the car, blanketing them in.

\------------ 

Furiosa woke to find that the wind had stopped, and a glow of light was managing to seep through the wall of sand now against the windows.  She looked over at Max, who finally was sleeping soundly, his hand having dropped her wrist as he slept. She gently took back her hand so as not to wake him, and began looking for a way to dig out.


	12. Chapter 12

_ Comfort, that’s what was so unique _ . Furiosa laid on the dune, surveying the new landscape for any salvage unveiled by the sandstorm, letting her mind wander. She hadn't had any form of comfort for a very long time, and never from a man. No man would have ever reached out and made contact for her benefit, or just to make sure she was okay. It was such a foreign concept, but it seemed to be something he was at least familiar with, maybe from the time before. She couldn't remember much from the trip back to the citadel, but there was the general sense of him being a source of comfort, and she able to be completely wrecked and vulnerable in front of him. She had woken up to him still holding her hand, touching her cheek when he saw her eyes open. When they came in view of the citadel, he had helped her to the front seat next to him and pulled her close so she could rest her head on his shoulder, something that seemed familiar to him. She had been too weak to think about it and just trusted him to take care of her, and it had all felt surprisingly natural. Even when she had lost her arm she hadn't relied on anyone like that. There really was no one, not a single other person she could relax around. Everyone else was either a threat or relied on her for help. 

She heard Max walking up behind her. As he inched up next to her, she handed him the binoculars. “There, see the glint of metal below?” Max nodded. “We’re near Buzzard territory, but I’ll go down to scope it out for any salvage if you guard the car.”

Furiosa walked alone down the steep dune to the object. As she scratched away the sand around the metal object, she unveiled an opening into a cargo container of a truck. Dropping inside, she uncovered the remnants of caravan, quite old, judging from the two nearly clean skeletons inside. She took her time, enjoying tracing her hand along the odd objects inside, curious about their use and history. A large clunky electronic box sat on a shelf of boxes, and she followed a wire from it connected to an object resting on the head of one of the skeletons, covering where her ears would have been. She stared at it for a minute, then felt a rise of excitement as she figured out its use. 

Max watched over Furiosa from atop the dune, scanning the horizon. He looked down to see her standing atop whatever object she had found, waving her hands to get his attention.

Max dropped down into the container to join Furiosa. It was the inside of an old RV, outfitted for the wasteland. He silently laughed to himself when he saw the bobble head on the dash, the old tacky fabric covering the seats. He walked over to Furiosa, pushing aside the skeleton leaning against the table. 

“It’s a radio, right?” she asked, an excited expectancy in her voice.

Max nodded, checking for signs of damage

“If I could use that to communicate with Gastown….” Furiosa said hopefully.

“You’d need two though.” Max said, beginning to look around the rest of the cabin.

Furiosa moved past her disappointment. “Either way, I’ll need your help to carry it back to the car.”

The spent the next few minutes surveying the cabin, examining for any salvageable material. Next to the radio was a map that they both studied for a while, a note scrawled on it: “3 days after an easterly storm, more water than you could want in the N. mtns, under the arch” Max laid out a tarp and started dropping valuable objects on it for collection. He stopped, picking up something from beneath the front seat. He smiled, then turned toward Furiosa.

“What is it?”

“Your second radio.”  He cranked a handle on the side of the small box, holding it to his ear.  His smile grew bigger as the box suddenly emanated some white noise. “An emergency radio and flashlight. You can’t send signals from this, but you could receive them if we fix the other one.” He gave it a few more cranks, and left the random noise play as they continued their search. 

The continued, engrossed in their search, when suddenly the white noise was interrupted by a burst of tone, the sound of a song trying to fight its way throught. Max and Furiosa both froze and stared at one another, Max jumping to give the radio some more cranks to make sure they didn’t lose the signal. The song faded back into white noise. 

“Was that…?” Furiosa wasn’t sure what to ask.

Max just shook his head.  Their attention was broken by the growing sound of motors in the distance.

“Shit” Furiosa cursed, jumping up to pull herself to the opening in the room they had entered from. “Buzzards, other side of the valley, don’t think they can see the car.” She hopped back down, Max was stone faced. “They seem to be checking out something else ahead. We might be able to slip back up to the car while they’re distracted.” she said as she concentrated on checking her weapon. She looked back to see Max already pulling himself up and out of the hatch above.  _ Shit. _ she swore again, as she watched him disappear onto the sand above towards the direction of the two buzzards. Shaking her head, she scrambled up after him.

Furiosa popped up from the hatch to see Max charging the two Buzzards while their backs were still turned. She went after to help as he struck one upside the head with a scrap of metal they had found below. Furiosa came sprinting up from behind to charge the second one as Max tackled the first. She tumbled with the mangy bastard before managing to shoot an arrow from her small crossbow into his neck. He lay spasming on the ground, finished, as she looked up. Max was absolutely pummeling the first Buzzard who was clearly already dead and limp on the ground. She had to finally grab Max by the arm. “Hey.” he looked up at her, surprised. “It’s finished, come’on.” Max looked at her for a moment with a look of absolute fury in his eyes, finally dropping his hand, before looking off at the horizon from where the Buzzards had come.  Furiosa followed his gaze to see the two other Buzzard cars in the distance, still unaware of their presence, safe for now as long as they didn’t turn in their direction. The Buzzards were pretty vile, but they must have done something awful to him in the past to incite such hatred.  “Come’on, let’s get the radio and get out of here before they come this way.” 

She had turned to walk back, reloading her weapon. She glanced back at Max to find him marching towards the distant buzzard cars. “What the… _ hey _ !” she tried to yell in a loud whisper. This was not going to end well.

Furiosa charged after him on the slope of the dune, pummeling him with a forceful tackle before he could get in sight of the Buzzards. He gave a grunt as they tumbled back down the dune, tangled up together. They landed in a heap, and as she readied to get the upper hand, he quickly and easily pinned her, ripped the crossbow from her hands, and took back off up the dune. She had forgotten that he wasn’t quite as weak now as the first time they fought. She quickly spun and launched herself to grab one of his legs with her full weight. He went down with an omph, and Furiosa clung on with her full strength as Max turned toward her with a scowl, lifting his free leg for a monstrative kick. Furiosa’s head snapped up to meet his eyes, glaring at him, daring him to kick her in the face. Max hesitated, leg still in the air, then scowled again as he instead slowly pushed his boot against her face, trying to push her off of his leg. Furiosa cringed away, the treads of his boot pushing against her cheek.  Finally the absurdity of it overwhelmed her and she shouted in exasperation “oh come’on!”  Max relented and glanced back up the dune to see the remaining buzzards already a distant speck. He dropped his head, burying it in his arms. Furiosa crawled up next to him, glanced at his dropped head, trying to understand. “Another time, I’ll give you everything you need to get them, but don’t be stupid about it, have some patience.” she told him. 

Still with head buried in the sand, Max weakly responded “and how many  _ years _ did you wait patiently serving him?” 

She sneered in surprise at his spitefulness, and got up in frustration to retrieve the radio. She was back in the caravan, working on loading the radio, all their salvage, to lift it herself back up through the hatch. Max came up to stand at the hatch, his shadow blocking the light. He stood there for a bit in wordless apology, before finally lowering his hand to lift up the gear and then offering a hand for Furiosa. Furiosa gave him a glance, then let him pull her up. They lashed rope to the tarp of gear, and stood side by side as they trudged back to the car with their heavy load. 


	13. Chapter 13

Back at the Citadel, Max fiddled with the radio, back at the catwalks after the luxury of something nearly resembling a shower at the baths down below. Body relaxed, typical distracting throb of hunger gone, he sought out the creeping shadows around him, attempting to defend against that insidious feeling of relaxation threatening to seep in through the cracks.  He aimlessly scanned through frequencies in the little radio, hoping for that signal again, anything in the white noise. Some fantasy that the old world had still been out there all along, he just hadn’t reached it. Nothing though, just the static, nothing to distract him, and as he stayed on one station long enough, the white noise would start organizing together to form the ghostly sounds of his own familiar voices. He would ignore it as long as he could, until growing so restless he would lean over to change the channel. Slowly, he found comfort in the ability to control the noise, to turn on or off the source of the voices in the static. After hours of tuning and staring out over the citadel, his hand froze over the dial, his eyes finally catching something real in the shadows to divert his attention outward.

Furiosa climbed up to Max’s quarters after hearing the bell. She found him standing against the rail in the blue light, back turned to her. She silently went to stand next to him. Max handed her the binoculars ”...there” he pointed mid way up the second tower. She peered through the lens, seeing nothing but rock, and looked up at him questioningly. He shifted to stand behind her, took the binoculars, then leaned in to line up their views.  “Look for the movement, there, in the vertical crack going up the face”, pointing his arm over her shoulder as he handed her back the binoculars. Furiosa realized she had been holding her breath as he stood behind her and now shifted her attention back to the tower as she took the binoculars, searching the shadows on the rock face. “See it?” Max whispered next to her ear. “no…” she hesitated, looking “...wait.”  She leaned over the rail as he dropped his arm onto the rail in front of her. There it was, a long lean shadow, moonlight striking something, moving steadily along the vertical crack.  Some kind of animal? It was too long and lean...a person maybe? She turned questioningly toward Max, surprised for a moment by his closeness.  “No one’s ever climbed it before….” she said.  He nodded, “Someone’s been getting in, right?” Furiosa thought for a moment “We can block access from the catwalks for now, I’ll keep watch if you want to get some rest.” Max paused for a moment, grunted, then gave a small push off of the railing in front of her to stand up straight and go to rest on the cot. 

Max was taking his turn scanning for more movement on the towers, Furiosa stretched out on the cot behind him, her arm laid out so the pulse on her wrist was accessible.  He fell into scanning between the radio stations again, finding comfort in the white noise. As he became more relaxed, that old world normalcy started to seep its way back in. Fighting it off, he rummaged through the bag of gear to prep for another turn around the catwalks.  He looked up while pulling on his jacket to see Furiosa watching him from the cot. She looked cozy there, bare toes curled against each. It made him smile for a moment, and he watched as an image from the old world popped in his head with him bending over to plant a kiss on her forehead as he walked out. His mind kept moving though, now picturing her pulling on the edge of his jacket as she sat up to meet him, kissing as he sat down on the cot next to her.

He stopped and shifted for a moment, gave an awkward clearing of his throat, and pivoted suddenly to walk away to the catwalks, avoiding her eye contact. She continued to watch him, suddenly feeling a bit angry at him but not sure why. 

\---------

The next day, Max and Furiosa stood at the base of the second tower, staring up and considering the almost sheer rock wall, trying to figure out how someone could have climbed it. Occasionally one of them would start to say something, then stop, and shift to get a new angle on their view of the wall.

“Huh…” Furiosa finally said, perplexed.

“A ladder maybe?” Max suggested.

“Would have noticed that…and a ladder to where? Wouldn’t get you very far”. Furiosa thought out loud.

Max studied it for a bit more, and finally walked up to the rock face, looking closer to test out a few holds and cracks on the wall. Decided, he took off his jacket, finally found something tiny to grab onto, and attempted to pull his body weight on it, immediately falling off as his fingers couldn’t hold and his feet slipped off the rock.

Feeling the small nub where he had tried to place his foot, he finally reached down and removed his heavy boots, and tried again. This time he actually managed to get off the ground, and started to get a rhythm as he slowly inched upwards.

“Try to your right” Furiosa suggested below.

She turned briefly as a crowd started gathering, just as Max came plummeting down with a thud on the ground next to her. Unblinking, she looked back up at the wall

“To the left maybe.”  She suggested.

Max responded with a groan from the ground. From the crowd, she heard someone derisively chuckling at them, and turning back to quickly scan the faces of the crowd. She thought she caught a familiar face, but it had disappeared into the crowd before she could identify it.

They kept trying for another hour, both Furiosa and Max slipping and tumbling off the wall before ever even managing to get high enough to do serious damage in a fall. Finally they relented and headed back inside, discussing new strategies to block access from the cliffs.


	14. Chapter 14

Max sat switching through white noise of the radio, patterns and voices coming out of the static until he leaned over to turn the dial, flick them off with a switch. He intermittently glanced over at Furiosa, who was once again passed out on his cot, dressed but for her bare toes curled together. He rubbed his chin.  He should wake her, it was almost dawn. 

Max squatted by the cot, making sure to choose a relatively impersonal spot on her shoulder to touch her as he shook her awake. She groaned, stretching, and swung her legs over the edge of the cot to sit up, leaning forward as she tried to shake the sleep off. Max found himself lingering there, still crouched beside the cot, their heads nearly touching, his hands still resting on the cot. With a sigh heavy with sleep, Furiosa rubbed her eyes before leaning forward, resting her head against his, her hand landing to drape against his leg. Max remained frozen there, stealing a glance at her from under his lids, aware that his hand, still on the cot, brushed against her leg. They both hung there for a moment, not saying anything. He stayed watchful when she eventually tilted her face to bring her lips closer to his ear. “You’re not breathing” she softly pointed out. Max moved his head back just enough to read her expression, eyes glancing over her. “Breathe” she said, shifting her face back towards him. He continued to watch her, barely aware of his hand tightening into a fist on the cot by her thigh. “Breathe” she said again, more reassuringly as she lifted a hand to his cheek, her fingers brushing the stubble of his jawline while her thumb nearly skimmed the corner of his lips. He found himself unconsciously turning in towards her hand, still barely breathing, his lips imperceptibly parting as her thumb now brushed them. Furiosa finally turned her head the last inch, lowering her hand to instead brush her lips against his, encouraging him further. He closed his eyes for a moment  and then finally relented. Max exhaled in a deep sigh as he returned the kiss, his hand on the cot moving to wrap around her hip to pull her in closer. Furiosa immediately responded, her mouth opening as her hand moved to the back of his neck, burying her fingers in his hair. They were both pulling each other in tighter, their kissing quickly going from gentle and testing to more hurried and forceful. As Max sat up straighter to pull her in closer, Furiosa inadvertently let out a groan as she leaned back, sending them both back on the cot. Max gave a sharp intake of breath as he tried to brace himself against the cot to avoid crushing her, but pressed into her more at the same time. She was wrapping her arms around his lower back, pulling him in closer, unconsciously arching her back. He could feel himself losing control, the momentum taking over, his hand slipping from her hip to the bare skin under her shirt. Then suddenly, a moan turned to a whimper. Max stopped as Furiosa’s hand switched to his chest to instead push him away. He leaned back to look at her. Her face was ashen, staring back at him with a fearful expression, mouth moving without making a sound.  Taken aback, he looked, and panicked when he saw her lips infected with the black oil, spider webbing across her face, reaching her eyes as her face grew paler and more corpse-like.  “No no NO” he scrambled as his hands darted around her face, desperate to stop the spreading poison. Panicked, he tried to separate himself from her, but couldn’t, the chains wrapped around them, holding them together. His hands flew up to his mouth, angry at himself for poisoning her, but he only found the hardened shell of Joe’s mask clamped against him, tightening its grip and suffocating him.

Max woke up with a jolt, his hands still over his mouth. His eyes flitted around, trying to get his bearings with a couple of shallow breaths as he was covered in sweat. Realizing he was alone in his room, he finally caught his breath, his fingers were still touching his lips questioningly. Dropping his hand, he fell back on cot with a groan. His hands reached up in frustration, not sure where to go. “God dammit….”


	15. Chapter 15

The next day Furiosa found Max determinedly working on car, looking like he had been there all night.

She came up to stand next to him as he worked under the hood, momentarily staring blankly at that smooth spot of skin behind his ear that was free of stubble. She leaned under the hood next to him and noticed his sleep-deprived face, tousled hair. “Bad dreams?”

He glanced up at her and paused, “…confusing” he finally said. 

He remained still next to her as she reached in to fiddle with something in engine.  She was looking forward to a day of working together again, but Max abruptly stood up and walked away from her. Furiosa turned her head a bit, confused as she was left standing there alone at the car. 

Later she found him searching through a pile of scrap. She had gathered supplies and some war boys to barricade the catwalks. 

“Hey.” she said, as he continued to sort through pieces without looking at her. “I’m taking them to help block access from the cliffs, want to come help?”

“I’m just going to work on the car.” was his only response.  She stared at him for a minute as he stayed with his back turned. Finally she turned, resolved to ignore him and get back to the task. 

She returned a few hours later to find him leaning against wall outside the shop, taking a break while eating a piece of bread. He looked up in time to see her walking toward him and clearly got up to leave, avoiding her. “Hey” she finally accosted him, frustrated. He glanced back at her, stopping and half turning toward her. “What is it?” she demanded. 

He glanced up at her “Just getting the car done so I can go, like we agreed.” He turned back around to walk away, and she pulled in front of him to block his path. 

“Bullshit” she said, as she pointed a stern finger against his chest to stop him. He seemed to bristle at her touch, staring at her finger, making her even angrier. “You need to go, I get it. But don’t be like this.”

He pursed his lips as he met her gaze briefly, before pushing past her to get back to the shop.  Furiosa stood there alone in the hallway, now itching for a fight. 

She wanted to hit him. All she could think about was how much she wanted to confront him and argue with him, but he kept himself isolated to the repair shop and she had better things to do.  Her thoughts were interrupted as she helped organize supplies for their next water and food trade below. They had run out of greens for now, but their crop of potatoes and beans still was holding. Something had to give soon though, the crowd below kept growing everyday, including those secretly trading from the bullet farm. 

By the window, the Dag called her name. Furiosa gave a distracted reply as she continued counting the resources. “New traders.” the Dag insisted.

“Great” replied Furiosa, not sure why that was important.

“No.” the Dag continued.  “Buzzards.”

Furiosa’s head snapped up. They wouldn’t dare come around here….would they?  They were completely outnumbered...unless they were bold enough to actually try for a fair trade. Furiosa went up to join the Dag at the window, peering below to see 3 Buzzards walking among the crowd, some bags in hand. She scanned the situation, eventually glancing up at the other lookout above her. There was Max, staring down at the Buzzards amongst the crowd. He turned and caught her gaze, face set in stone, before he abruptly disappeared from the window.

Furiosa went into action. He could not go after them now, not here. “Get Capable and some war boys. We’ve got to get to them before Max does.” she shouted back at the Dag who had a look of confusion on her face as Furiosa sprinted off after Max. 

  
She caught up to him as he made his way to the cars and lift to below. He glanced back as he heard her approach, but continued forward faster after seeing her. She charged after him but he turned to meet her at the last minute, deflecting her oncoming efforts to stop him. She managed to hook a foot around his leg though as she grabbed at his arm, pulling him off balance and tripping him at the same time, they both going down with a thud. She quickly gained the upper hand to scramble on top of him, pinning him with one forearm against his neck, pushing his head back to meet her gaze. “Not here.” she scowled at him. He gave a sneer, then reached an arm around her waist while throwing his weight to flip her onto the ground, now pinning her in return. That look of fury was in his eyes again, but he seemed to lose momentum as she met his eyes while she tried to push free. The sneer softening as he caught his breath; lips parted, he blinked, then abruptly let her go and got up to continue walking towards the shop. She watched him in surprise as she propped herself off the floor, got up and went to again block his path to the car, ready for another fight. He stopped in front of her, and she stood her ground, repeating “I can’t let you down there.” Max stood stock still, eyes focused down on the ground, holding back from another physical fight. He finally turned to walk away in the other direction. “I wasn’t going after them.” was his only reply as he walked away.  Furiosa watched him walk away, still standing there, when she was surprised to hear someone speak. One of the Vuvalini had been watching them from the catwalk above. “Leave the poor man alone” was all she said, while Furiosa still stood there tense from the confrontation.


	16. Chapter 16

It was still and quiet in the citadel as Max worked into the night to finish the car. The silence was broken as a war boy scurried passed. Two more came a minute later, “She needs hot water and  cloth”  one said as they hurried past. Max’s eyebrows knitted in a frown as he dropped his work and made himself walk to follow them. The chaos increased as he walked through the corridors towards the chambers, some older women running past him, his apprehension building. Finally he heard it, the piercing sound of a baby crying. His pace slowed as he reluctantly approached the crowd trying to peer into the Dag’s room. He gently pushed passed a woman with her hand clasped against her mouth in grief, and turned into the room to see blood. 

Cheedo was bending over the Dag, dabbing her forehead with a cloth as Capable tried to help the Dag hold her still screaming baby. Furiosa looked up at Max from the bedside, eyes red; she shook her head. Max walked up to stand next to her, and looked down at the Dag, pale and dying on the cot, still ma naging to cradle the child. She saw Max, looking suddenly calm, as her eyes shifted to the door. He stood silently, then bent d own and lifter h er and the baby up, ignoring Capable’s protest as he carried the Dag and her baby out the door. 

  
Capable found them later up on the catwalks under the blue light of the stars. The Dag was gone, slumped against the wall, a jacket draped over her at a last attempt at comfort. Capable kneeled next to her and found a peaceful expression on her face. She fixed one loose strand of her hair, then walked over to Max. He sat there, blankly staring out at the sky, holding the infant as it latched its tiny hand onto one of his fingers.  Capable gently leaned over, lifted the baby from Max as he barely responded. The baby was too tiny, clubfooted, with a small dark spot on his lower back, not likely to live long. She carried him back inside, passing Furiosa who had stayed by th e door, watching the scen e.


	17. Chapter 17

She found him the next day, packing his things in his room. She walked in without saying a word, sitting on the edge of the cot as she watched him getting ready to leave. He waited for it, the usual entrety for him to stay, asking for him to help, become a member of this dying group. He was shoving items into his bag, but instead of protesting, she simply handed him the objects next to her to help him along. That made him pause for a moment, but he kept moving, nearly finished. Finally, she spoke. 

“I want you to stay.” It was not a demand, but more of a realization.

His movements slowed a bit, but after a pause his only reply was a simple, gravelly “No.” 

Furiosa continued to stare at a random corner of the room. Finally, she added “I think...i’m guessing…” she tried to find the right words “you know how good this world can be, and you won’t stay to show us.” 

She finally pulled herself to briefly glance at him to see his reaction, before looking back down, leaning over her knees as she continued to stare at the corner. 

Max stopped now, studying her for a bit. After a long pause, he set the bag down, and took a few deliberate steps toward the cot to kneel down in front of her as she continued to stare into space. 

“You trust me?” he asked. She turned her head to meet his gaze and gave a small nod. “It would wreck us both” he finished. She gave another resigned nod as she looked back at her corner. Max remained there in front of her, finally lifting a hand to the back of her neck, pressing their foreheads together like he had seen her do with the Vuvalini. She hesitated a moment, before just relaxing with a sigh, letting herself sink into it. They remained there for a moment, and as Max started to pull back his hand, he instead placed it on her cheek. Hesitating for just a moment, he paused to place a small kiss on her lips, lingering a moment longer than planned, before pulling himself away. 

He stood up, grabbed his bag, and walked out to the hallway. Furiosa stayed sitting on the cot, her hand involuntarily going up to the pin pricks in her lips.  
\-------------------

Max was packing up the car by the lift, accepting a few remaining gifts Cheedo and Capable were trying to load him with. He saw Furiosa walk up behind, holding something, as he got into the driver’s seat and shut the door. 

“When will you come back” Cheedo asked him, with an innocent hopeful tone.

“Few months maybe” Max lied.

Furiosa, back to being all business, strode up to his open window to lean in and talk to him. “I made sure Gastown knows to expect you any time you need extra help. Try and leave notes for us any time you get the chance.” He nodded, happy to focus on the practical. “And I want you to take this.” She handed him the small emergency radio. He looked up at her in surprise. “You can help search for any other signals out there while we get the other radio up and running. You have to promise to bring it back though.” 

He gave her a reproachful look. He should just leave it, but it was the only thing that helped him get to sleep now, helped him control the voices, and she knew that. 

“You said you should be back in a few months.” she countered his look, a small gleam in her eyes. 

He glared back at her for a moment, then begrudgingly took the radio from her and placed it in the passenger seat. “What if you need it sooner?” he asked, readying the car to go. 

“If we get the other radio working, then you’ll hear us” she gave a small smile, then pushed off the car to stand up straight, stepping away so he could continue on. 

He eyed her one last time, looking her up and down before driving onto the lift and disappearing below back into the wasteland.


	18. Chapter 18

The line of cars was getting farther away as she was pinned under the lion’s paw.

He chewed lazily, taking little bites of her flesh as she screamed and struggled. She fought through the pain to finally steel herself, jaw set firm. The lion grew bored when she stopped screaming, batted her around a bit, finally swatting her away to forget about her. She lay below in the empty sand, dejected and bleeding, watching as the lion above turned his back from his overseeing balcony, his attention caught by a new shiny object. The sand rubbed into her wounds, but she forced herself to stand against the coarse wind, searching for any sign of civilization on the horizon. There was nothing there. 

Instead, slinking shadows began to form around her, pairs of glowing eyes blinking open, drawn by the smell of blood. The wretched, the lowly scavengers were circling, creeping in. Fury built up in her as the hungry beasts circled her. Not these lowly creatures, not them, they would not be the end of her. She was better than that. She watched them right back as they stalked her, ready to patiently fight her way back to civilization.

\----------------------------

Max trudge along an empty stretch of sand, his stomach grumbling as he focused on prodding for pockets of air in the sand for salvage underneath. The stick he used had been hitting something solid and flat underneath for a while, but now it sunk in deeper a few feet ahead of him.  He paused, investigating the spot where the sand began collapsing. A foot further, he met with resistance again. Stowing the stick back on his pack, he readied to take a small jump onto the next solid section of sand. With a careful leap, he landed right where he aimed, and promptly cursed as it collapsed underneath him and he was enveloped by the sand. 

Max instinctively held his arm up near his nose and mouth to create a pocket of air as he was surrounded by darkness. His other arm dug blindly through the sand to find any empty space or something to latch onto. Finally his fingers felt air, then a metal object, and he pulled himself through as sand filled in where he had just been. He caught his breath and glanced around him. He was crouched on some sort of metal table, a picnic or lunch table, a green umbrella above him. He must have jumped right on top of the umbrella before it collapsed under his weight. A few other tables and umbrellas were close enough to create a type of cavern underground, a diffuse light making its way through the thin layer of sand above. He took out his radio and gave it enough cranks to use the emergency light attached. Back the direction he had come, he could see an awning above a door to some sort of office or store. He slinked across the picnic tables to reach the door, pulling against the sand to slip inside.

Max gave the emergency radio a few cranks to turn the flashlight on. In the weak beam of light, he saw rows of shelves beyond before the light died out. Walking forward while giving the light a few more cranks, he saw books lined up along the shelves, and a glance up showed that they extended throughout what turned out to be a large building. He smiled, bookstores were one of the few things ignored by scavengers during the early looting. 

He took his time walking the aisles as he cranked the light fading in and out. He found himself looking for books that they might like back at the Citadel, some glimpse into the old world. 

He came to the Romance section and paused, awkwardly wondering if they would benefit from those stories outside their experience. He hastily threw one or two in his bag and kept moving. 

He was coming to the end of the last aisle of books, when he dropped his bag and stared at the sight ahead. There was a small cafe in the corner, and he scurried over to rummage for food. Most of it had been cleaned out already, but after 20 mins of searching, he finally found a small jar of honey on the back of a bottom shelf in the closet. He sunk onto the floor, dipped a finger in, and savored the bit of sugar filling his veins. After the briefest moment to linger, he continued scavenging through the shelves, finding nothing but spoiled food and stacks of paper cups. His hand reached a container, and he pulled it out to take a look. This time he couldn’t hold back the big grin on his face. Still sealed and airtight was a jar of instant coffee. He hadn’t seen coffee in years. His arm reached in searching for more, but it was the only one. He resisted the urge to open it up just for the smell, and forced himself to put it in his pack. He would have to decide later if he let himself have a sip, or saved it sealed for trade. 

  
He stayed for another day or two, hiding away from the sun, skimming through books by the light of a small torch. It was the first time in a while he was safe enough to sit still, and now he put on the radio for the first time in a week. He was scanning through the stations absentmindedly, when there was a crackle, and the trace of a voice through the static. He froze, listened, and held his breath as he heard the voices of the citadel calling him back to return what was loaned to him.  


	19. Chapter 19

Max was a day or two out from the citadel, had been for a while as he stalled. He was near the wall of mountains, toeing the line near the rock riders’ territory. He had picked up another signal on his ride back; it wasn’t the music they had heard the first time, but a repeating voice claiming sanctuary within the mountains. Everything told him that it was a trap, but it did mean another radio nearby he could keep for himself. 

He lay on the dunes staking out the location described in the broadcast: he solitary rock rider resting by the fire under a shaded tent in the narrow slot canyon...as well as the other 2 others hiding as part of a trap. How could they expect that to work? who was out there to hear and be tempted by the trap? Unless they had heard another signal too and knew there was someone else out there, someone who obviously had resources. 

Max laid in wait as the sun set, his diversion ready as he watched the group’s growing restlessness from their long overdue hunger. Quietly creeping through the slot canyon until he was nearly in sight of the campfire, he gently cradled the two shaking desert mice that he had trapped a few days ago; his failed attempt at a mouse livestock breeding program in the back of his car. Readying himself, he knelt down and released the mice. They immediately bolted away from him, straight towards the direction of the camp. Waiting one second, 2 seconds, then he heard it: the exclamation and scurry as the first rock rider chased after a potential dinner. Max waited a moment longer. A second and a third shout as the two lying in wait tried to beat the first to the chase, the voices moving farther away. 

Max bolted towards the fire, eyes flittering across the collection of objects as he skidded into the camp, and narrowed in on the radio to grab it as his momentum was already turned and carrying him back. As he darted back out of the canyon, radio in hand, he had time to register that one of the smaller rock riders had still been in sight, half turned back to him, not quite falling for the bait.

Max moved as quickly and quietly as possible to get back to his car in the encroaching darkness, the radio tucked firmly under his arm. He prepared to gingerly leap to the next boulder when he was startled by the sound of something whizzing past his ear. He flailed his one free arm wildly, giving a deep breath of relief as he barely stuck the landing, when he felt the pelt of a rock knocking his shoulder. Max tumbled in a free for all, a sharp pain at his side as he went slamming and scraping along the boulders, trying to protect the radio the whole time. Rolling to a stop in a depression in the rocks, he checked the radio, then himself for any damage and took the moment of shelter to quickly sling the radio across his back with his scarf to protect it from another fall. More agile now, he popped his head up, scoped out the best line to run across the boulders to his car, and then took off in a sprint.

  
Darts were whizzing past his ears, but he was flying across the rocks, leaping quick and agile between boulders, assured now with the radio safe on his back. The car was close, one or two more leaps away, when he felt the thwack of something impacting his back, one, then two. He fell forward hard, scraping his hands, and looked over his shoulder to see the now half crushed radio that had just shielded him from the impact of the stones hurdled at him. With an incredibly loud curse, he turned, set his jaw, and got up for the last sprint to the car. At the first step a dart thrummed into his neck.  He staggered a few steps, hand reflexively reaching to pull out the dart impaled in his skin.  He stumbled over the last few boulders, knees giving out as something from the dart coursed through his veins. Max finally collapsed a few feet from the car, and rolled on his back to look up at the group of rock riders now circling him. The last thing he saw was the startled face of the short-haired one, Toast, staring back at him in shocked recognition as another’s club swung down for the final blow. 


	20. Chapter 20

The pain pulled him back to consciousness. At first all he could feel was the pounding of his head, then slowly he noticed that it was leaning against a car window, the sand speeding below slowly coming into focus. Max finally gathered the strength to tilt his head up, and he saw the Citadel growing on the horizon. With a low growl, he attempted to sit up, and found a sharp pain in his side, a cracked rib most likely. Rolling his head over, he saw Toast at the wheel of his car, eyes glancing over in concern. Still heavy from the drug, he managed to shoot her an intense scowl. Her looks of concern turned to defensiveness as he continued to glower at her.

“What?” she said as she squirmed uncomfortably. “...I got you out, didn’t I?”

  
Max held his annoyed gaze. Rolling her eyes, Toast finally deflected with a “Here...for the pain.” She gripped a dart tube in her mouth, pulled off a cap, and jammed it in his thigh as he yelled out in surprise. He immediately grew groggy and soon fell back against the window as they continued forward. 


	21. Chapter 21

Furiosa tried to keep from rushing in as Capable and Toast walked out of the chamber “How is he?” she asked, barely covering the urgency in her voice.

“Bruised, but not broken.  He’s still passed out, Toast gave him something… for the ‘pain’” Capable shot Toast a look, which Toast ignored. 

Furiosa nodded, and she was left alone in the room with him.  She stood in doorframe, looking at his immobile figure on the bed. Finally she walked over to stand by the bedside, looking him over as he lay there sleeping. One large bruise on his side was beginning to turn purple and his hair was wet hair where they had attempted to wash and bandage a head wound. His breathing was shallow, hitching each time he tried to take a deeper breath as it hit a bruised rib. She found herself raising her hand to place two fingertips on his wrist, searching for the pulse. 

Furiosa looked up from tracing his wrist to see his eyes open, watching her. She dropped her hand from his arm to let it rest on the cot.

“You said you’d bring back the radio” she chided him. 

“I did” he replied, still groggy “plus a better one”

She looked over at the smashed radio and raised an eyebrow. He attempted a laugh, grimaced, and tried to sit up, holding his side. 

“Having to be dragged back isn’t really what I meant”

He didn’t respond to this. “Is she still here?

Furiosa nodded “Toast won’t be able to go back to the Rock Riders now after fighting to get you out. It’s for the best, plus I could use her help here.” She said, sounding tired.

He looked up at her more closely now. She looked thinner, dark circles under eyes that were a bit bloodshot. He wondered what toll maintaining order at the citadel was taking on her.

Furiosa let him study her, reaching up a hand to touch the bandage on his head before letting out a sigh of frustration and dropping her hand back to the cot. The corner of his mouth twitched as he hand an inch forward on the cot to rest one or two fingers on top of her hand in comfort. 

They heard a cough behind them. A man Max didn’t recognize and Toast were standing by the doorframe. Furiosa looked up with an air of resignation, and went to greet them and give Toast some space to talk to Max. Max watched as Furiosa walked up to the man, shook her head to something he asked, and she walked away with him down the corridor.

Toast walked over to him with an air of confidence, which faded as he let her be the first to break the silence filling the room.

“I didn’t know it was you, obviously.” she finally said.

Max glanced at her as he adjusted his knee brace, remaining silent for a bit. Finally he spoke. “You had a home, a choice, and you chose to become a scavenger” he stated with an even tone as he continued tending to his gear.

Toast was silent for a while, looking down. Finally she replied “...so did you.”

Max paused at that, let out a sigh and glanced up at her. Toast met his gaze; they didn’t say another word as she helped him reorganize his things.

Toast helped Max out of the cot as he used her as a crutch to help him walk around. “Tell me what’s been going on, Furiosa looks tired.” Max asked as they hobbled down the corridor towards the catwalks.   

Toast spoke quickly, relating what she had just learned. “They’re expecting a siege any time now. Engineer at bullet farm is getting desperate, they are close to having more firepower, but are near starvation. They've lost a lot of people to us, but people who came to us for food and water. We've been getting more people everyday, not just the wretched now, some bad, some good.” 

They paused as the came to the rail of the catwalks. Peering down, Max now saw an expanse of tents and structures spreading out from the base of the citadel. The moaning and crawling of the wretched had been replaced by the brisk walks of an energetic crowd, chatting and trading. 

Max and Toast both took a minute to appreciate their new surroundings. Toast continued “There were a  lot of bad seeds at first, scavengers hoarding water or trading it back to bullet farm. But decent men and women have started showing up now, have helped us break up any gangs below, become part of the leadership at the citadel. Capable has even taken a shine to one of the new men.” Toast paused for a moment “...as has Furiosa” she said as she stole a glance at Max to see his reaction. 

Max blinked at that, but then gave a small smile. That must have been the man outside of the room earlier. He was glad, they all seemed ready to try for something more. Plus now he could relax without the threat of something more between them; maybe even allow himself to stay a few days now that that was out of the way. 

They continued to watch the crowds below, Max noting that access to the citadel was still sealed off from the crowds. A thought popped in his head, surprised he hadn’t thought of it earlier.

“Did you rip out the notes I left for the others?” he asked Toast.

She looked down, hanging her head a bit. “Yeah….I stopped at your hiding spot sometimes for food and water.  Didn’t mean to ruin the book, but I didn’t want Furiosa and the others to know that I might be in the canyon now that the pass was open...not yet, they would have convinced me to come back.”

“And what about the Engineer?, were you talking to people at the bullet farm?”

Toast looked taken aback. “No, that place is crazy.” she said adamantly. In a quieter voice now “and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about this place. I left so I wouldn’t have to talk about it again.”

Max studied her. She could be lying, but his gut told him she wasn’t. Maybe that scavenger had been wrong, maybe there was no one in the citadel sabotaging them, no former wife working against them. He could stay a bit longer to check though. Watch over the rest of them from here just until he could be sure, then he could go again. 


	22. Chapter 22

“Here, let me help you” Jack said, taking a heavy bag from Furiosa’s hand as they walk away from the room. She remembered to give a small smile, “being gentlemanly” he called it. 

“So...who is he then?” he held the door for them to enter the corridor. There was a new tone in his voice she hadn’t heard before, she studied him with a quick glance. Jack had come with the rest of the masses, after Max had left the last time, when the crowds had started to overwhelm the place. Water scalpers and gangs were gaining more influence than the Citadel and Furiosa could ever help to control. Jack and his group starting fighting back from among the crowds. His group moved on, but Jack remained, eager to help, and Furiosa started to consider that maybe there were other men out there like Max, maybe the Citadel was not the norm. She had invited Jack into the Citadel and he had stayed. 

“He was someone who was caught up in our escape from Joe, convinced us to come back in the end. He’s trustworthy” she said simply, turning away to continue walking.

“And here I thought I was the first nice guy to come along.” He shot her a crooked smile. She glanced at him for a second, then shook her head with a half-laugh. That had taken her a while to figure out, the teasing. For a while he would make half jab comments and she would just stare at him until finally realizing he had been flirting with her all along. She remembers the moment she realized she could try, remembers making the decision to start someting, enjoying how easy it was to make him weak in the knees.

Furiosa continued down the hall to her room as Jack walked off, insisting on carrying her heavier items off to the shop. Now with Max back, she realized just how crowded the citadel had begun to feel, so many more people around her she had to consider. She was trying, trying to build these connections, this community feel, but trying for something new was an effort. It had been months of effort, and she just needed some respite, somewhere to rest for a moment. 

She turned a corner, walking past the occasional group hurrying by. Something made her slow as she approached the kitchen though, and was suddenly stopped in her tracks when a particular scent reached her nose. It slammed into her with an association of old memories: a violent, bumpy ride, her mother speaking to her. She froze trying to place it, thinking, at the same time feeling a wave of nausea rise up. Fighting back the bile rising in her throat, she cautiously followed the source of the light piney scent. Voices grew louder, and she slowly pushed open the door to the kitchen. 

There stood Capable and one of the Vuvalini, speaking in hushed tones. “Too much, and it will fix you for good.” the Vuvalini warned as she handed Capable a cup of tea. Capable gave a dismissive snort, to which the Vuvalini grew stern “Maybe that’s not what you want now, but it might be someday.  One pinch only” she repeated. 

Furiosa let the door creak, making them jump at the sound. Capable momentarily looked caught off guard, but she quickly gathered up the rest of the herb and walked off in the other direction. The Vuvalini watched Capable go, gave one reproachful look back at Furiosa, then followed Capable out the door. 


	23. Chapter 23

He could hear her yelling out for help under the crushing rubble of the citadel. He was almost there, sprinting across the sand, a tar-like black pool underneath her growing as he got closer. But when he finally reached her to help lift the impossible weight, she kept reaching out past him, still shouting for help to someone on the horizon. Max looked behind his shoulder; there were the others, right here and together easily lifting the stones off of her.  Standing there, he felt a gentle push against his arm as Jack walked by: “Go on” he said “you’re not helping”.  As Max took a step back to let him pass, he notice the black pool under her recede. With each step away it shrank, and Max continued walking backwards, letting the others finish the task. Slowly, Max disappeared back into the wasteland.

Max opened his eyes to find the orange ceiling of his citadel bed chamber above him. With a groan, he sat up, feeling out his ribs, his head still pounding. Hobbling over to the balcony, he scanned the crowds below. Motion under the south tower caught his eye, and as he studied it he could make out group of people centered around something, digging determinedly. 

His observations were interrupted by a knock at the door. He attempted to ignore it, but the persistent knock was finally replaced by Capable’s voice, calling him out. With a frustrated scowl, he pulled on his shirt and opened it to see Capable standing there, a baby strapped to her back. 

Max stared at the fidgeting infant, a handful of Capable’s red hair shoved in its mouth, little feet, encased in some sort of cast or boot, kicking at her side. The baby looked up at Max, gave a squawk, and shot Max a crooked smile.

“Max, you’ll remember Orry”  Capable said, giving the baby a bounce as she noticed Max staring. Max looked at Capable in surprise. She gave a smile and nodded. 

“He’s still….?” Max started.

“Going strong” Capable responded, “well, despite a few close calls right after he was born. Dag would be proud.” She gestured down the corridor as she turned to walk away “Come’on, we’ve got the radio you brought up and running with Gastown.” 

Max followed, still staring perplexed at Orry as the baby happily pumped his fists. They came to a central meeting room connected to the main tower balcony. Furiosa and some others were huddled around Max’s small emergency radio, Toast playing with the dials as static came through. Furiosa glanced up at him, her eyes following him until she was distracted by the burst of a voice coming through the radio.  Toast continued to hone in on the dial.

“Attacks increasi-…. munitions..still limited, ….-d and water holding….now.  Guzzoline still safe and contained.” Toast worked to reduce the static as the voice repeated “attacks increasing, but Bulletfarm munitions still limited, food and water holding for now, they still haven’t gotten any of any of the guzzoline…….” The voice continued repeating the message as Furiosa nodded to a nearby warboy to signal Gastown that they had heard the message. 

Max had remained to the side, assuming the role of an observer in the group, staying to the back. When Furiosa starting speaking however, the explanation seemed directed at him

“Bulletfarm must be at the edge now. They haven’t had steady food or drink for weeks...they’re actions are getting desperate. As long as we can keep holding out, they won’t have the gas to get munitions or explosives here. Even if they do, we can withstand an attack in the citadel. Only point of weakness is the lift, which we are ready to barricade.” Furiosa gestured to a diagram of the citadel below her and Max moved past Jack to stand next to her and lean over the schematic. “The problem is all the people below. How to bring them into the towers to protect them when we don’t know who to trust. Someone is still getting in...maybe that climber, I don’t know, but we need to figure out a plan before they manage to hijack some of the gas”  

Max nodded. “How long can you hold out with your rations?” 

Furiosa rubbed her head, looking worried “Thankfully we have unlimited water. The food?...3 weeks, maybe, depending on how many more come to our side”

“How did the citadel used to hold out for months?” Jack interjected.

Furiosa hesitated, “We used to rely on the mother’s milk.”

“Yeah but what did the milkers eat?” Jack pressed. 

Max looked away as he saw everyone in the room grow uncomfortable. Furiosa paused, and finally carefully replied “We don’t talk about that.” Furiosa changed the subject and looked back towards Max. “Have you seen anything out there?”

Max shook his head, “You have digging here, under the south tower.”

Furiosa nodded “We already questioned some of them. They’re apparently looking for water; there’s nothing there. Any more bullets on the road?”

“Some bullets, not many, scavenged mostly. Most I saw were kept to guard the area near the mining.”

Jack leaned forward, taking Furiosa’s attention. “There’s still time. I can head out and take care of the gunpowder stockpile.”

Furiosa met his gaze; it was obviously an old argument. “No. We’ve already lost too many perfectly capable men trying... and we’re even more outgunned now than before.”

“I know you’re worried about me...” Jack started to protest

She blinked. “It’s not the smart play” she said simply.  She looked back at Max now. “You’ve seen it” she said, more to Max as she looked back at him, “What do you think?”

Max eyed Jack before speaking, contemplating his real importance to Furiosa; Jack did not look happy she was asking Max. He chose his words carefully. “You risk having something to lose.”

Furiosa watched his glance toward Jack, then nodded, understanding his meaning. Jack eyed them both and dug in deeper: “It’s dangerous, but I could stop all of this. You don’t have to risk anyone else, it would just be me.” 

Furiosa was shaking her head, already moving on.  “I do need your help, on the barricade for the lift, the warboys are already waiting for you. Toast and Capable, start preparing the North tower to take in the people below, we can isolate them there until we know who to trust. Cheedo, work on counting our rations again.”

Max turned to leave with the others as he moved by Furiosa with a gentle push on the small of her back, offering “You’ll want 2-way communication with Gastown; I’ll work on fixing the new radio before I go.”  Furiosa looked up in surprise, about to say something when Jack distracted her. 

Max walked out as they continued their argument. 

\-------------

“I can take care of this for you” Jack persisted as he continued to follow her down the hall.

Furiosa shook her head, not bothering to respond.

“What then, why won’t you let me do this? You need my help”

Furiosa stopped in frustration “Yes. I need you to help with the barricade” she repeated, pointing towards the lift. This was wasting too much time, she appreciated how he was always so eager to help, but she needed him to get off this and start focusing on their defenses. Without thinking about it she pivoted then, heading down the hallway towards his chamber instead, him still doggedly pursuing.

“Just 24 hours and enough guzzoline for a bike to get there, that’s all I need to take care of this for you.” his voice soften as they reached his chamber door, his hand reaching out to catch hers, turning her towards him as they stopped.

She turned back toward him, looking down to contemplate his hand holding hers. “I know, I just really need your help here,” she said, softening her voice, “It’s just...right now there’s nothing else for them to hold against us out there, no ransom. We’re fine as long as we hold up our defense. It’s not that I don’t think you can take out the stockpile, but I DO know that you’re the best to organize the barricade.” she placed a hand on his cheek. “I need your help” she appealed to him, subtly moving to stand closer to him. 

He smiled as she leaned closer, instinctively wrapping his arms around her waist before moving his hands up to cradle her face. “OK, of course, I’ll fix the barricades first.” She kissed him as they moved out of the hallway and into his room. 

She always enjoyed watching his reaction, how quickly he became distracted as they started undressing, their kissing growing more intense. She was making sure she worked towards something better, not letting the past hold them back. Jack stumbled onto the bed as she continued to push on, kissing him hard. Jack tried to say something breathlessly “..wait-...Wait.” he finally got out, trying to slow her down. “Let me-...I want to make you as crazy as you make me.” he mumbled as he started to kiss down her neck. She paused, letting him, but feeling that same growing restlessness, that growing discomfort, rise up as he continued to focus on her, kissing her exposed neck. The urge to rush through grew as he continued to kiss along her collarbone. 

  
Instead, Furiosa deftly moved on top, pinning him as he easily gave in, and she was comforted as she watched him melt beneath her.


	24. Chapter 24

Jack lay next to her, soundly asleep, while Furiosa was wide awake as usual. Normally she would escape to her chamber to get some rest for the remainder of the night, but tonight she found herself exploring the citadel, seeking fresh air up in the catwalks. She walked in the blue night, her attention caught by a warm glow of light flickering from a room up ahead.

Furiosa walked up to lean against the doorframe of Max’s chamber, studying the mess of radio parts strewn around him on the floor. He looked up at her from his seat on floor, not a trace of surprise or tension in his expression.

“Can’t sleep either?” she asked as he cleared a path for her and she walked in

He grunted in reply, helping her step over some objects with his hands guiding her by her wrist and elbow.

She sat on the cot on a place he had cleared, as he sat back on the floor to continue his task. She watched him work, cleaning each piece of equipment to remove the sand and dust. Furiosa picked up the pieces next to her to do the same, Max occasionally looking up under his eyelids to catch a glimpse of her.

She didn’t get why he seemed so much more relaxed now. Last time he was here, he had bristled at her touch before he had left, again. Now he had no hesitation: a hand on the small of her back, a touch to her elbow. He seemed to be relaxed in her presence and enjoying it, whereas before he was so agitated he had to leave. At least he had reminded her that there could be men out there other than what she had always known at the citadel. It was the first  reminder she had had since that one man when she was young; another one that had accepted her as trade when offered by Joe, but instead of trying to touch her, dropped her off with a jug of water and shewed her to an almost civilized settlement in the distance. How much Max reminded her of him, how much she started to think that maybe there was a whole group of similar people outside the citadel, and that maybe Jack was the same. But then why did he leave her feeling frayed? She definitely enjoyed aspects, he was always eager to help, would never hurt her, but it just felt like so much effort and managing. Always needing to find something to distract him with so he would not go overboard trying to help, take care of something for her. Like with everyone else, she had to keep redirecting his energy to get back to what she actually needed, and it took effort. An effort with Jack, but never that way when she was with Max-

 

“So…”

Furiosa’s head snapped up in surprise as she found Max staring at her with one raised eyebrow. She realized that she had been absentmindedly polishing the same piece of metal for the last 5 minutes while clearly lost in thought.

She gently put down the piece, having been caught with something on her mind, and sat back on the cot to lean against the wall. Hugging one knee, she looked back up at Max, who was making a show of remaining busy with the task, not expecting a response but waiting patiently. She contemplated him for a moment, then decided to just to go for it.

“It feels like an effort” she said steadily, watching his reaction.

Max gestured his head in the direction of Jack’s room and Furiosa nodded in return. Continuing to work, he gave a small nod, “Might at first, ...considering, but shouldn’t forever”

Furiosa continued to watch him as he went about his tasks. She added after a pause “He insists on doing everything for me”, her brow briefly creasing a bit in confusion at why that might be a bad thing.

He seemed to think more now. Finally he asked “To be helpful, or to feel important?”.

Furiosa paused, considering this. “I’m not sure” she finally said.

After a moment, Max shrugged “Look, at least he’s not a psychotic warlord, right?” he gave a small crooked smile.

She smiled at bit in kind, but then looked sad.  After a long pause, she finally added:

“You left.”

He froze for a moment, then finally looked up, meeting her gaze.  He gave a deliberate nod in response. Biting his lip, he finally moved to gather up some of the scattered pieces, adding “I’ll stay until a siege, but will go before you lock down.” He returned his focus to his work, ending the conversation as Furiosa remained on the cot, her eyes getting heavy with fatigue.

“You should get some sleep” Max finally suggested. He had meant to suggest her own room, but he didn’t protest when she stretched out on the cot instead. She continued to watch Max work as she relaxed into sleep.

\----

Max sat on the floor with his back against the cot, humming contentedly to himself as he reassembled the radio. Furiosa was still passed out behind him, her arm stretched out to rest on his shoulder so he could feel her wrist for her pulse if he needed.

He was surprised by a knock at the door, and looked up to see Capable and Jack step into the doorframe. Noting Jack’s taken aback expression as he saw Furiosa sleeping there, Max gave a sharp shrug of his shoulder to wake her. She gave a sleepy grunt and rolled over, taking in Capable and Jack as she rubbed her eyes.

  
“We need help moving items to make space for the crowds.” Jack said curtly as Max and Furiosa staggered up to stand. Max nodded as Furiosa went to walk out with Capable, who seemed to be biting the inside of her cheek, Jack eventually following. Max stowed the radio, shaking his head at himself as he sighed before following them out.


	25. Chapter 25

Furiosa stood there, tall and proud, watching over the crowds below. Max looked on, content, from the edge of the dark corridor as she moved the lever to release the water to the people, the complex system of pipes pulsing as they came back to life . All that came out though, was the dark oil, thick and slow. Max’s eyes widened at horror, and he looked back up to Furiosa, who was now glaring at him in accusation. “You caused this. Why are you here?” she demanded. He tried desperately to recede back into the dark corridor but the back thick sludge slowed and tripped him as it continued growing, filling the citadel.

\---

Max eventually joined them in the tower, leaving Jack and Furiosa their space, not wanting to create any further tension. Capable grabbed Max, directing him to some objects across the hall.

“We need to bring in Organic’s old cots, create some sort of sleeping space for the crowds” Capable explained as she took one side of the nearest bed.

As they lifted to carry it across the room, they were caught off balance by a herd of warpups sprinting through the room. “Hey!” Capable yelled after them. “Get back to the classroom and your nurses!”.

One stuck out his tongue as another yelled back at her “NO!, we’re soldiers! We will protect the citadel!” Another pretended to drive as one swished a piece of metal in the air like a sword. “We fight! We live, we die, we live AGAIN!” two shouted in unison as they scurried on. 

Max looked at Capable as she shook her head. “I swear, the herds of war pups are going to take over this place. Old ways die hard.”

The herd ran into Jack, who playfully picked up one of the warpups. “Look at you, you White Knight!” Jack exclaimed, as the warpup giggled. Jack set him down, pretending to become stern. “Show me how you will protect the fair maiden trapped in the tower” he demanded of the war pup. The boy stood straight and gave a few determined swings of his toy sword. “Well done soldier” Jack proclaimed. “Now run along to your rooms, you’ve got training to do!”

They all worked throughout the day, preparing the tower to accept the masses below. Max spent much of the time observing, watching this new hodge podge community staggering along. He watched as Capable tried to wrangle the war pups, as one war boy kept glancing at Cheedo, she sometimes sheepishly, sometimes daringly, responding. 

The day was ending, and Max walked out behind the others. He ended up behind Jack as they walked down the corridor, and after a moment’s hesitation, Jack turned to him and noted “we’ll need that other radio ready soon to talk to gastown”. Max simply nodded and Jack continued walking ahead of him. They both slowed though as they turned the corner to find Cheedo and that warboy, standing close in a dark corner of the corridor. 

Cheedo seemed to hesitantly protest something, starting to walk away, when the warboy grabbed her hand and forcibly pushed her back against the wall. Jack started up with an quick “Hey!”, rushing over to pull the warboy off of her. He got in the warboy’s face, sending him off with a forceful warning.

Max watched as Jack turned to comfort Cheedo, asking if she was okay with a light hand to her cheek. Cheedo nodded as the rising panic began to subside. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small object and placing it in her hand. “Here,” he said “anytime you need help, you can use this and I’ll come get you.”  Cheedo looked into her open hand, a small whistle lying there. The smile was still frozen on her face as her brow started to crease in confusion. Jack gave her a pat on her shoulder as she remained frozen there and he continued on his way. 

Max stepped next to Cheedo, his eyes following Jack as he strode off down the hall. Wordlessly, Max took the whistle out of Cheedo’s still open hand and replaced it with the extra knife normally tucked in his boot. “Let me know if you want to know how to use that” he said as he left to return to his chamber to attempt to sleep.  

\---

Max stood there, simply holding Furiosa closely as she rested her temple against his shoulder.  “I need you instead” was all she said.

Max shot awake in a panic, his heart racing as he was covered in a cold sweat. He managed to sit up just in time to wretch over the side of his cot. 


	26. Chapter 26

Max paced restlessly, feeling agitated and needing to keep himself busy. He walked the catwalks in the night, looking for anything more pressing to distract himself. He was on his fifth lap, finger anxiously tapping away at the binoculars in his hand, quick to investigate the subtlest movement.

This time though, he finally saw something real. The shadow was back, barely discernable as it scrambled up the rock wall of the tower. Max stood stock still, his racing heart beat heightening his focus as he stood there barely breathing as he watched. He stood stock still, patiently waiting for what felt like hours. The lithe figure finally came to the catwalk and lifted up and over the rail about 100 feet in front of him, then crept into the entryway to the other tower. Max silently moved to follow, keeping his distance.

The figure moved silently through the corridors of the tower. It was a slight figure, either a boy, or woman, he couldn’t quite tell yet. Farther and farther down the figure crept, moving towards the lowest levels of the tower as everyone else slept. Down near to the basement levels now, the figure ducked into some sort of access panel tucked under a walkway, and slipped into the darkness.

Max waited a moment before following, tucking his frame to try and squeeze into the same small space. He crouched into the resulting pitch black passageway, unable to stand straight with the low ceiling. He waited for a moment, listening for any sound, but heard nothing. Silently, he continued forward in the dark, one hand against the cool wall to help orient himself. After 5 minutes or so, his hand reached a gap in the wall, another passageway that turned left. He stopped again, listening, unsure which way to go. Then he heard it, a faint banging echoing in the distance. It was rhythmic, like someone hammering. He honed in on it, and turned left.

The banging grew louder, sounding like metal hitting cement. The sounds came more clear as he grew closer, and he could hear the faint sound of rock crumbling and falling. There was another series of hammering, more persistent this time, and after a final bang, Bang, BANG, he heard a distant yell in triumph as crushing rock fell into a splash of water.

The sounds were still a ways ahead of him when Max came to another split in the passageway, one way blocked by a half open door. Max delicately tested it, but it immediately emitted a loud creak. Max froze halfway through the door as the banging immediately stopped. He was trying not to breathe, remaining as silent as possible, when a sound was suddenly behind him, slamming the door hard against him to pin him in the doorway.

Max yelled out in pain as he fell forward, his hand slammed by the heavy door. He immediately scrambled back up to give chase as the figure ahead sprinted back to the wide corridors of the citadel. He could just barely see the figure ahead of him, and raced to catch it. He turned the corner in time to see the figure gracefully climb up a pile of scraps to reach a higher catwalk; Max fumbled up after, kicking down scrap as he went.

The figure dashed ahead in the corridor, briefly looking sideways while passing the open door of a chamber with light streaming out. As Max reached the same door, he had time to see Furiosa and some others from the corner of his eye staring back out at the racing figures. “Here!” was all he had time to yell as he continued chasing the figure.

He could hear more pounding footsteps behind him now, the others helping in the chase. Furiosa yelled something as the figure pivoted left to scramble up a nearly sheer slope of rock. Max attempted to scramble up after, but immediately slid back down, unable to reach. He saw Toast running towards him out of the corner of his eye and immediately bent down, signaling his knee and lowered hand for her to step onto. Toast got the idea, used his shoulder to step a foot into his hand as he boosted her up the slope, just in time for her to catch a foot of the fleeing figure. Toast clung on as the figure kept kicking at her, Max pulling them both back down. Furiosa and Jack caught up and helped grab the kicking and struggling figure to pull it down to the ground. Jack held the struggling figure as Furiosa held up a lantern to get a better look.

In the light of the lantern, Max saw a young woman, long limber limbs and striking green cat eyes. Strips of rubber were strapped to her feet in some sort of odd sock or shoe. Behind him, he heard Furiosa give a snort of incredulous surprise.

“Her royal fucking highness” Furiosa said, shaking her head.

They all looked back at Furiosa, as she and the woman glared at one another. Jack finally asked the question, “Who is she?”

“A wife.” Furiosa responded. “She was a wife.”


	27. Chapter 27

“I always thought you were far too proud to have jumped.” Furiosa said, glaring at the woman. “What did you do Tasha?, convince her to jump with you, hope that when we found the remains we couldn’t tell that there was only one body and not two?”

The woman, Tasha, shook Jack’s tight grip off of her, clearly no longer attempting to run. She brushed some dirt of her sleeve before responding. “Lily was always miserable anyways. She was better off, thinking she was going out with a friend.”

“And what the moment when she realized you didn’t jump with her?” Furiosa cooly shot back. 

Tasha simply shrugged. “You know I was Joe’s favorite, he never would have stopped looking for me otherwise.”

“You’re the one wife who escaped.” Max interjected, remembering the scavenger’s words from months ago. Tasha looked over at him as if she’d just noticed him, giving him a look up and down. 

“What do you mean?” Jack asked. “They all escaped, Furiosa, the others.”

Tasha looked at him a moment to see if he was serious “Furiosa?, escaped?” she laughed at that. “You mean the one that Joe rejected. The only one who kept coming crawling back, begging to return just to serve him...is that what you mean by escaped?” Tasha gave a scornful snort of laughter as Furiosa stood there coolly, not showing any reaction. 

“You’ve been serving the Engineer” Max pointed out. 

She glared at him, “....We have an understanding” she sneered.

Furiosa finally spoke. “What are you doing here Tasha?”

“Promised I wouldn’t tell” Tasha smirked back. 

Furiosa acted swiftly, striking Tasha with the back of her metal hand before anyone could react. Tasha had a moment to look taken aback before Furiosa had grabbed her by the throat to shove her against the wall.

“What are you doing here Tasha?!” she demanded again, this time in Tasha’s face. Tasha could only let out a choked gasp as Furiosa tightened her hold.

Jack grabbed Furiosa in protest, “Hey!” he shouted as he pulled Furiosa off of Tasha, taken aback by the violence. “She’s as much a victim of Joe as the rest of you.” 

Furiosa and Tasha both looked at him incredulously for a moment. Max did not like how Tasha’s expression seemed to shift, as if she was considering Jack’s protectiveness. Furiosa reluctantly loosened her grip, giving Tasha room to speak. 

“I just want to get home” Tasha said, her voice becoming more pleading. “He said he would help me get home if I helped him.” 

Furiosa stared at her and scoffed at her sudden change in tone. She turned to Max “Can you show me where she went? Maybe see what she was after?” Max nodded, about to turn around.

“I’ll take her up, see what I can find out about the Engineer’s plans.” Jack offered, keeping a tight hold on Tasha as he directed her back down the corridor.

Furiosa stopped at Jack’s suggestion, hesitating. She looked at Jack and seemed to be contemplating something. “No, wait. I’ll go with you Jack. Toast, you go with Max.” A brief expression of frustration seemed to cross Tasha’s face as Furiosa stayed close to her and Jack.

Max motioned to Toast, “C’mon, I’m going to need someone small to crawl through the corridors.”

Furiosa and Jack pushed Tasha towards a room with a locking door, Tasha suddenly clamming up now that Furiosa was staying with them. Furiosa pushed her into a chair, standing over her as she studied the former wife. “So the Engineer will help you get home, but what does he want in return? Your ability to climb and sneak in? But what have you been looking for...”  Furiosa questioned, more to herself.  

Tasha absentmindedly stared at her long, toned fingers, letting her pride overtake her “He knows no one can climb like me, not even at home. He needs me.”

“Look Tasha,” Jack started, kneeling to talk to her at her level “I don’t know what he promised you, or is holding against you, but if you just talk to us, maybe we can help you.” Tasha didn’t respond, but studied him from under her eyelashes, watching him, the tiniest hint of amusement underneath her otherwise stoic expression.

“I want water” was all she said, her eyes holding a brazen expression as she continued to watch them pace. 

Furiosa just rolled her eyes and shook her head, “You talk, you’ll get water.” Jack seemed to be about to protest, when there was a knock at the door. Cheedo stood hesitantly at the door frame, waiting to get Furiosa’s attention.

“Gastown is back on the radio,” Cheedo interjected meekly,  “talking about something suspicious happening at the gates.” 

Furiosa looked back at Tasha. “I don’t have time for this now.” she said, turning to the door. “We’ll get nothing but lies from her anyways. We’ll lock her in for now.” 

Jack begrudgingly followed, but as he walked out he quietly pulled Cheedo aside. “Bring some water up for her when you can, eh?” Cheedo nodded as Jack handed her the key before following Furiosa into the hallway. 


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> spent way too much time editing previous chapters. FYI, small stylistic changes to preceding chapters

Max and Toast shouted to one another from within the tunnels.

“How about that way?” Max asked, his voice echoing as he stood perplexed in front of another intersection in the maze of tunnels.

“I’ve passed about 5 different ways to go.” Toast called back, frustrated.

Max went back to find her, holding up the lantern to create a small pool of light. Toast stood where the tunnels ended in a T-intersection, a door in the wall in front of her that was partially ajar. Toast stepped over the lip of the door to slip through and Max pulled it open wider to follow behind. They entered a corridor that was blocked in another few feet by a second door, also partially open. Max looked around them as Toast tried to peer into the darkness beyond. Noticing a gleam of something on the floor, Max examined what appeared to be a wet footprint on the ground, pulling the light away just as Toast went to step over the next threshold.

He was startled by Toast exclaiming, followed by a splash of water. Max shot over to the second doorway, thrusting the light into the darkness and found a cavernous expanse.

The noise of some splashing and a sharp “Hey!” from Toast drew his attention down. He looked down to see Toast below, her pale face bobbing in a dark pool of water, the doorway leading to a sheer drop off before the pool.

“You alright?” he called down, scanning the surroundings with the light. It was a large cavern, a pool of water below with pipes reaching upwards, no end in sight.

Toast coughed, “Yeah, just need to find how to get back out.” She swam back towards the wall while Max knelt down with the light to look at the wall below. There was an old broken ladder, half of the rungs fallen off. Toast attempted to scramble up, Max helping to pull her up where the last few rungs were missing. They both squatted at the end of the tunnel, peering out into the pool.  

“Must be part of the aquifer, where the water is pulled up” Max guessed, looking at the towering pipes as he scanned the area with the lantern.

“Is this what she was looking for then?” Toast asked, ringing out the water from her clothes.

Max shook his head. “She was hammering something, chiseling some rock away.” He looked up at the wall to their side. “There’s some other sort of access tunnels over there…” He was thinking. “You keep looking in the corridors, I’m going to get some rope, other supplies. See if Furiosa has found out anything more”

\----------

Furiosa left the radio room. Something was up; someone cutting a hole in the Gastown fences, one guard dead.  If they were in already, why were they waiting to take the guzzoline?  What were they planning?

She slowed as she got to her chamber, looking forward to moment of privacy to finally grab something to eat. Instead, she found Jack leaning against the corridor wall, waiting for her. 

“We need to talk before you go back up there to her.” Jack confronted her as she worked on the heavy latch of her chamber door. 

Furiosa paused while opening her door, looked at him, and waited.

“How far are you going to go to get information out of her?” he pressed on. 

“I just need to get the job done.” was all Furiosa added, waiting to open her door until she know how long this would take.

He eyed her, perplexed. “You of all people should be more understanding. She’s just trying to get home. It’s not her fault she was taken advantage of by Joe and now the Engineer.”

“She’s dangerous Jack. Just because she was a victim doesn’t mean she’s innocent.” Furiosa turned to open her door a crack, hoping that was the end of the conversation, but Jack caught her hand. 

“Maybe if you ever told me anything I would understand better. You never talk about what happened here, what he did to you all. The girls, Max, they all know more than me.”

Furiosa scoffed, shaking her head as she looked off in frustration. “Max? Max would never ask.” She eyed Jack again as he waited intently.  “He knows enough to understand. He would never ask me to rehash all the details for his curiosity.” Jack looked stung for a moment as Furiosa kept going. “You keeping pressing this. What is it you want to know so badly?”

“I just…” he paused for a moment, at a loss for words. 

Furiosa watched him, tired of his insisting.  _ Fine _ , she finally decided, if he wanted to know so bad she would give him a story. Give him enough that he would stop asking for more details in the future. She opened her chamber door the full way to let him follow. 

Jack followed, trying to mask his curiosity as he looked around the room. Furiosa turned to him. 

“What do you want to know?” Jack just stared back at her expectantly. “That he took me?, just like he took them? Yes, he took everything for a whim, took my home, my family, took my mother, dead before me….and after all that was gone, he just tossed me aside, decided that I was not worthy, not productive enough, tossed aside to be traded to someone who didn’t care about an heir, traded for a spare car part." she paused, but then resolved to just continue. "But you know what, I was patient, one thing I always was was patient. And that first man he traded me to, he was not watchful. I slowly siphoned off his water as he drove us into the wasteland, and when we were too far for him to crawl back, I stole away the rest, hid in a shady hole like a desert mouse as I watched him grow weaker from thirst. He was near death already, when I left him there. I taught myself how to drive his car off, searching for home.” Furiosa paused for a moment, brow furrowed at the memory.  “There was nothing though, nowhere to reach, nothing but sand. The water would run out, and the thirst would come back. And the thirst, you don’t know thirst...I can’t control that, outlast that. I held out for so long, but eventually went crawling back to stagger among the wretched. Begging the same man who had stolen me and then rejected me to take me back, defend why I deserved him. He would give me just enough of a sip to stay alive, and I was forgotten about until needed for a trade. I learned to hide in the shade of the tunnels and corners, between the warboys and the wretched, scratching away those men that would find me from time to time. Sometimes dragged out to be traded again, sometimes trading myself. Far enough out into the sand, I would hide away with the water and wait till they grew parched and weak, and soon, with so much practice, soon I didn’t have to wait for them to be so weak before I could take them. Always, I would take their cars and search for home...but I could never last. I would come crawling back once again looking for water, but at least now I would have something scavenged to trade. I soon learned though that their scavenged jackets and car parts could be traded for water to last for a day, but a subdued man, healthy only to turned temporarily weak by thirst to be stamped and traded, was worth a week's worth of food and water. Soon Joe was even trading me to men he dislike, knowing I would take care of them for him, the war boys tailing after me, hoping to collect any scraps remaining.  And I could have survived that way, it was enough, still trading in human flesh, but not irredeemable. I was still a lowly scavenger though, not worthy of attention, hiding in caves, always on the brink of thirst. Until my scavenging led me to a pale innocent little thing, reprehensible in how unprepared she was, so little ability to defend herself.  A perfect little wife for his collection. I despised her in how easy it was to drag her back, she was so little and weak. And for that trade, to his perfect collection of wives, I bartered for all the water I could ever want, and a bedroom door that locked from the inside. But most of all, I had proved him wrong in his easy dismissal of me, by being his most trusted servant, he needed me, depended on me, and I felt some meager amount control. After all that though, turns out I was just as expendable as the rest, just another disposable warboy, sent away on a suicide mission just to bring back his runaway pregnant wife. I had nothing over him, he kept taking when he had plenty, and for once I just wanted to see him desperate. So I took away the one thing that would get to him. That’s why I took them with me, got them out. Not to rescue them, or be a savior, but just to piss him off, leave him desperate. And it worked, it worked so well. He was wrecked when he crushed his favorite wife under his own wheels, and that helped me get away...that helped me.”

She looked up at him then, as he studied her earnestly. 

After a moment, he took a step forward, reaching a hand out in comfort. “But you can’t blame yourself for that, for any of that. It was what he did to you, put you in that position. All of it, all you did, was his fault. You’re not responsible.”

She stared at him, consternation furrowing her brow as she sneered at his response. She sighed. This just wasn’t for her. She had tried, she said she would try, but it just didn’t fit her. 

He reached out his hand, trying to pull her in closer for comfort.

“No, we’re done.” was all she said, turning around to walk out the door. 

“Furiosa,” he called to her as she walked away. “Where are you going?” he asked in protest. “You don’t have to worry about this anymore…”

She kept on walking, she had things to get done. 


	29. Chapter 29

Furiosa walked alone to the upper levels, heading back to the room where Tasha waited. She saw Max in the hallway ahead of her, seemingly looking for her in the corridors. She allowed herself to breathe for a moment and called out to him. Max turned in surprise and jogged to catch up to her. She looked him over, a line of dirt smudged across his cheek to his lip, a pack on his back stuffed with a rope and an ax.

“Anything more from her?” he asked, turning to walk alongside her.

“No, you?”

“Maze of tunnels, going slow and need more supplies. She’s messing with something in the water supply.”

They turned the corner to the locked room where Tasha was held. Furiosa slowed as she saw Jack ahead at the door, a plate of food in his hand as he met her gaze. Max looked at them both as he noticed Furiosa become tense.

Jack opened the door, then froze, the plate of food clattering to the floor. Max and Furiosa both ran up to get a look, and found Cheedo sprawled on the ground, a smashed pitcher of water next to her, blood smeared on her clothes. Tasha was nowhere to be seen.

Max immediately went to Cheedo's side, gently giving her shake as he reached to check for a pulse.  As Max touched her neck, noting the red marks, Cheedo flew awake, gasping and trying to swat away his hands as she tried to sit up. Max let out a sigh of relief as he tried to calm her, her eyes wide before realizing that it was Max.

“She's out.” Cheedo's finally said, still gasping for air she repeated, “She got out.” Max nodded, carefully brushing her hair back to examine her already bruising throat, checking to see how badly she was hurt.  Max stole a glance back up at Furiosa, who was standing stock still, jaw set in anger. Her eyes were diverted to something out the window, and Max turned to follow her gaze, noticing too the faint glow of a light flashing on and off.

Without a word Furiosa turned to walk back into the corridor, taking the ax from Max’s pack as she walked out. Jack, still standing there stricken, suddenly seem to wake up and turned to rush after Furiosa, yelling after “Furiosa!...what are you doing?”

Max stayed by Cheedo, letting her catch her breath.  “Are you bleeding?” he asked. She gave a look of confusion, then seeing the blood on her clothes, began frantically searching at the fabric.

“No” Cheedo finally answered. She looked about, suddenly seeming worried.  She looked back at Max, eyes wide “She was going to kill me.” She kept going, shaking her head. “I didn’t think...she...she was going to kill” she repeated, looking back up at Max.

Max gave her a squeeze of the hand, “I know” he said in comforted, helping her to stand up and walk out into the corridor.

Cheedo let him guide her out of the room, but continued to look like she needed to explain. “No, I mean...I used the knife,” she said as she pulled up the blood smeared cloth as evidence. “It’s hers” she clarified. Max paused and looked at her as he brought a chair out for her. He then noticed the few drops of blood heading down the corridor to his left; Furiosa likely followed the trail. He remained squatted in front of Cheedo, looking for any additional injuries as he gave her a moment to calm down.

There was a sound of a commotion coming down the hall, and then Furiosa came into view, dragging along a kicking and struggling Tasha, bleeding from a large cut on her arm. “It’s too late!, he’ll have seen the signal, he’s already on his way!” Tasha protested as Furiosa dragged her back to the room. Furiosa stole one last glance at Max before pushing Tasha into room, slamming the door behind them.

Cheedo looked alarm “what is she going to do to her?” Max didn’t respond, but remained staring at the door.  Jack came following, rushing after to try the door, banging on it as he yelled at Furiosa to open up. He stopped as they heard some muffled shouts, a clear protest of ‘No!’, followed by a _whack_.

\--------------

Furiosa yanked out the ax that was wedged centimeters from Tasha’s fingers. She demanded again “What are you after?”

Tasha only gave a sneer in return, breathing heavy between her teeth as she stared fixedly at her hand still pinned to the table by Furiosa’s metal prosthetic. Outside, Jack was still shouting, banging on the door. Furiosa raised the ax again. “What good are you if you can’t climb in anymore?” she hissed into Tasha’s ear.

“Fuck you.” was Tasha’s only response.

Furiosa let the ax fall, Tasha crying out in pain as she felt the ax make impact. She sucked in a few tense inhales, steeling herself with her eyes screwed shut tight. She dared to open her eyes as Furiosa raised the ax again, and this time she screamed in agony when she saw her now severed pinky and ring finger. She struggled in protest under Furiosa’s hold as blood began to pool on the table, her actions suddenly desperate and frantic.

Outside, Jack was now slamming his body into the door, trying to break it down, shouting at Furiosa “Don’t!, you need to stop!”

“I’ll ask you again...what are you after?” Furiosa repeated as Tasha’s eyes grew wide in panic. Furiosa lined up the ax along Tasha’s remaining fingers. “How many more can you bear to lose?”

Tasha seethed, her breath becoming more shallow and more hysterical. Furiosa raised the ax again.

“The water.” Tasha finally exclaimed. “He wants the water.”

Furiosa looked at her. “I already know that” she said as she begun to swing the ax again.

“No! The other access, he wanted me to open the other access.”

Furiosa paused and blinked. “There is no other access.” tightening her grip on Tasha but starting to think.

Tasha found the energy for a dismissive snort “Yes there is,” she said as she panted, stealing a contemptuous look up at Furiosa. “Blocked off for decades. It feeds water outside to the bottom of the south tower. I’ve spent the past months trying to find it.”

Now Furiosa stopped. It started to make sense. Tasha sneaking in, messing with the aquifer, the digging by the south tower… anxiety started to rise up in her. “What else?” Furiosa pressed.

Tasha buried her head against the table, seeming resigned. “It’s too late anyhow, it’s already done, he’s on his way.” she sighed. “Maybe you can last for a while, but as soon as you need to pull up more water, you’ll fill the accessory tunnel, and he’ll have all the water he needs down below.”

Furiosa leaned back, brow twisted in anxiety. _Shit._ All of their advantage depended on letting the Bulletfarm army become weak from thirst. They could never hold out long enough during a siege if the enemy had access to water. Her mind kept spinning through scenarios. So the tunnel hadn’t filled with water yet...that was good. But once it did fill with water...they wouldn’t be able to empty it again until the water levels dropped, that could take weeks. But there was hope, she could still deal with this. They just couldn’t pull up anymore water…

Furiosa needed to get on this immediately. She looked down at Tasha, whose head was laying on its side on the table, absentmindedly watching the blood around her fingertips. “Anything else?” Furiosa asked derisively.

Tasha longingly stared at her two severed fingers. “They’ll never accept me back at home now” was all she said in a mournful tone. Furiosa felt a cringe of empathy for a brief moment, before she turned to the door where Jack was still banging away in protest.

“Furiosa!, you can’t, you can’t kill her” Jack continued to shout.

Furiosa opened the door to catch Jack in mid-protest, looking surprised to find it open.

Furiosa eyed Jack coolly.  “She’ll live” was all she said as she left the room for Jack to go tend to Tasha.


	30. Chapter 30

Max found Furiosa at a nearby sink, cleaning herself up, her back still turned to him as she matter-of-factly communicated what she had learned. He stood watching her as she strategized out loud. “We already made sure to have reserves of water” she said, still not looking at him as she continued to wash the blood off of her hand. “It should last us at least a week before we would need to pull up more.” She began to finish up, seeming to give careful consideration to polishing her prosthetic, taking her time to put it back on, buckling each strap tightly, before she finally turned toward him.

“Think you can find it?” she asked him, making a point to look at him directly, “The accessory tunnel?”

Max was still and watchful as he studied her expression. Finally, he gave a small nod.

She seemed to pause for moment. “Good” Furiosa said, moving to gather her things to walk past him out into the hall.

But she was stopped when Max grabbed her hand as she walked by him. She froze, glancing sideways at him as he stood still facing the wall of the sink. He seemed to be thinking. Finally he glanced down at her hand, sliding his fingers to the handle of the ax still in her hand that she had taken from his pack.

“I might be needing this at some point too” he said simply, taking the ax from her hand to wash it off in the sink. She took a moment to watch him work at the sink, taking him in, before turning back to head down the corridor.

\---------

Jack left Tasha at the medical room and walked aimlessly in the corridors. He felt like he had lost his sense of purpose for the first time since coming to the citadel. It had been so clear when he first came across these women in the tower, they looking for help to stave off the violence of the outside world. He saw in them an opportunity to shield something more virtuous from the horrors of what men can do. Now he watched as they risked becoming polluted by that violence as others came in. He had to fight, take care of those threats for them and shelter them from that brutality.

Jack paused as he heard a disturbance coming from the radio room and turned to follow the sound.

Toast, Capable, and some others were huddled around the squawking radio, their faces filled with alarm. Capable looked up to see Jack, “They’ve taken Gastown” she explained in a fearful tone as Toast moved passed her to head for the door.

“Go tell Furiosa” Jack shouted after Toast. She gave a grunt in return as she continued on her way. “How bad is it?” Jack asked Capable.

“They’ve got vehicles and plenty of gas now...estimating they can be here in 8 hours, maybe less.”

“Good job” Jack said, giving her a pat on the shoulder. Then, thinking, he asked “How long ago? When did they get through?” suddenly rushing as he realized something.

Capable furrowed her brow “Maybe 10 minutes ago, why?”

Jack nodded his head in relief. “Good, there’s still time” he said as he went to gather up supplies before heading down to the cars.

\----------

Toast came running up to Furiosa as she walked through the hall

“They’re coming!” Toast called out to her. “They’ve taken Gastown!”

Furiosa nodded, staying calm. This is what they had been preparing for. She heard Max come up from behind to stand next to her.  “How much time?” he asked.

“Guessing 8 hours or so till they’re here.” Toast replied, still trying to catch her breath.

Furiosa felt a pang of anguish in her gut. It took her a moment to decipher the reason for her sudden distress.

Toast was continuing, “Capable’s already started working on bringing everyone in.”

Max slung his pack on his shoulder and gestured down the corridor. “C’mon, I’ll need your help with something, we’ve got to hurry” he told Toast as she turned to follow him.

Furiosa watched Max disappear down the hall, the anguish starting to grow into resentment. _You’re going to leave again, aren’t you?_ she thought to herself as he turned the corner and vanished from her view.

\-----------------

Furiosa made her way back to the central room, running through a list of preparations still needed. She paused as she passed the medical room, a nurse coming running out as another sat winded on the floor. Furiosa gave out a low sigh and headed to the nearest balcony. She leaned against the wall to peer out to the sheer drop of the outer rock wall.

There she found Tasha, bracing herself hesitantly on the tiniest available ledge. She looked over to notice Furiosa, and appeared to regain her typical air of confidence.

“You can’t keep me in here!” she yelled out defiantly as Furiosa looked on.

Furiosa looked her over, eyed Tasha’s hand covered in a bulky bandage that was beginning to soak through with blood. She peered over another inch to look down at the sheer drop. Finally she shrugged.

“Go ahead.” Furiosa said. “You’re no threat anymore. They don’t need you, we don’t need you. Go ahead and go home.”

Tasha stared back at her, her defiant expression ruined by a sudden knot in her brow. She looked down at the rock wall beneath her feet, and for the first time looked fearful. After a few deep breaths, she began to try and climb down, slowly picking her way. Her bandaged hand slipped, leaving her clinging to the rock with her good hand as her breath came quick and ragged as she tried to keep her grip. She looked down again at the emptiness, a slight sob escaping her as she tried to continue down.

Furiosa turned to walk away, heading back towards her task. She passed another room and paused, staring at something inside. Finally, she went in, grabbed the object, and turned back to the balcony to sling a rope over the side, letting in land just to the side of the still clinging Tasha.

Furiosa walked away, the medic passing her as he still furiously looked for his escaped patient. “She’s down there” Furiosa gestured. “Let her get down and bring the rope up when she’s done.”

She kept walking, finally reaching the central room and balcony. Looking out over the edge, she saw the beginnings of the crowd filing in to the towers. Twenty or thirty here, another forty there. They kept streaming in though, the small groups quickly becoming hundreds, all herding into the citadel underneath her.

  
She watched as her breath became more shallow. _There are too many_ ….the little voice crept in again. _If it’s not enough water, you know what happens with the thirst._ The sinking feeling in her gut kept growing denser. _If bulletfarm doesn't it make it in first then we’ll gut ourselves from the inside._


	31. Chapter 31

“Anything?” Max dropped into the water next to Toast after throwing down the rope.  

“No…” Toast continued sweeping the light up the walls of the cavern as she treaded water.  Max swam up next to her with his pack held against his shoulder out of the water. He gestured to the series of pipes in the shadows that towered endlessly into the darkness above them.

They searched among the complicated series of pipes for a while, looking for any signs of another opening. Toast noticed a valve on one of the pipes high above them and she shimmied up with the light held between her teeth. The valve just broke off in her hand when she tried it though, and it clearly led to nothing important.

“See anything more from there?” Max waited patiently below.

Toast swung around the light from her higher vantage point. Getting frustrated, she looked back to the opening from where they had come. And then she saw it, a dark shadow above and to the left of their entrance. She smiled and let herself drop to splash back down next to Max.

Max looked perplexed for a second and she smiled back, gesturing to their exit. “C’mon, I'll need a boost.”

\----------------------

Toast wedge herself into the small opening to take a look at the freshly opened tunnel, Max wedging a foot into a loop in the rope she had just thrown down to stand next to her. He picked up some of the fresh crumble of rock next to the jagged edge of the tunnel and nodded his head.

“How do we re-seal it?” Toast asked expectantly.

Max looked thoughtfully. “You can try and reseal it with cement, but might take time, not sure how well it will dry in here. If you guys become desperate, you can blast it shut. I can show you what you would need.”

Toast stared at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. “You’re not staying.” She finally said in realization.

Max paused, pretending to ignore the statement. “You'll have to set the charges pretty deep in the tunnel to not damage anything else.”

Toast continued to stare at him. “So you give me a hard time or leaving here and then go and do the same?” she continued to press, her voice turning bitter.

“I'll leave everything you need in the main room” Max continued to give instructions. He paused as she continued to stare at him bitterly. “You guys can handle this, you have a week to work on it.” He hesitated for a moment, then moved to head back down the rope to the door below.

\-------

It had been a few hours by the time Max finished with everything he needed. There was only an hour or two left before the citadel closed up, before he wouldn’t be able to leave again for weeks, trapped here while everyone at the citadel was in a precarious position. He stalled with one last task before he would face departing again.

Max walked to the radio room, empty now that Gastown had been cutoff. He had pushed to finish the new radio, triple checking that everything functioned properly. He gently placed the new larger radio on the table, and then protectively took the small emergency radio and cradled it under his arm. _You’re replacing it with something better_ he assured himself, quietly taking off with it as he went to his car to finish packing.  

Max wadded into the amassing crowds now filling the hallways, pushing against the tide of people flocking to the heart of the citadel. He shouldered passed a meager looking family, child clinging to the legs of an anxious-looking parent who walked with a limp. Max sped up his pace. He finally pushed through to an empty hallway when he heard her call out to him.

Max reluctantly turned to see Furiosa catching up to him, an anxious, hurried look on her face as her eyes briefly darted to also check out the crowd. He took the moment to study her and realized that this was the first time he had seen real fear on her face. It had been just under the surface when she went to lead the others off to the salt, but now it was visible and brimming to the surface.

The tension in her face quickly turned to anger as she spotted the radio under her arm. She cocked her head in incredulity as her pace sped up in confrontation.

“No.” she asserted as she snatched the radio back from him. Max wrinkled his nose in a scowl but didn’t fight back.  “You don’t get to take that. That stays here.” All of her built up tension began to come out as she directed it towards Max.

Max clenched his fist, frustrated as he glared at the radio now in her hand. “I left you the new radio, you don’t need this one anymore” he rebutted, but didn’t try to grab it back.

Furiosa’s eyes grew wide in disbelief. “ _I_ don’t need it?! What about you? I have hundreds, if not thousands, of people, across multiple towns, that I need to keep track of. What do you have? Who exactly do you need to stay in communication with that you need a radio out there, all on your own?” She paused to study him with a sneer.  “You want to know how this turns out, you stay here, you stay and help.  You take that out there, I will hunt you down to get it back. _We_ need it.”

Max shook his head “This is your choice, to be here, not mine...shouldn’t be my responsibility.”

“My choice?” Furiosa exclaimed with gritted teeth. Max immediately regretted his words.  “All I ever wanted to do was go home, but I’m still here because people are depending on me. Not all of us can just run off from the people that need help anytime we choose.”

Max finally started to grow angry in return. “Who?” he snapped back. “Who have I run from?”, taking a step forward to match her combative pose. “They’re all dead. No matter what I did, it just led to their deaths, my actions poisoning them.” He had a look of disgust as he pointed back to her in confrontation. “My idea to turn back almost killed you. All that I can see now is that same poison infecting you, my blood still coursing through your veins.” He shook his head again “I can’t stay here...no.”

For a brief moment Furiosa was taken aback, but all of her built up tension kept bubbling up, venting as it tumbled forth. “You don’t get to claim sole responsibility for all the bad shit that happens in this world. No one’s life or death revolves solely around you. You may be more capable and reliable than any other man I know, but we’re all on borrowed time here, everything is already dying, has been for a long time now. You can either go out there, do nothing, and let it happen anyways, or do whatever little goddamn bit you can to help.” She felt the anger petering out as it abandoned her, no longer masking the worry underneath it. “You know what it feels like to be responsible, to fail, and you’ll risk letting me fail for HUNDREDS.” She looked up now as her face was knitted with anxiety and saw how her words affected him, his face now starting to twist in anguish. It spurned her on, and she let herself show it fully now, the panic rising in her voice. “They’re all relying on me...and I don’t know if I can do this. I’m afraid I’m going to fail. I can’t…”

She watched herself play up her worry, choosing to show every ounce of fear that had been slowly building up in her as Max stood across from her with a growing look of anguished sympathy...and then she paused, closing her eyes with a forced shake of her head. She knew exactly what she was doing, knew exactly what to say to convince him to stay. She was terrified, it was true, and she needed his help, but she had let that take over to play on his empathy. Somewhere she knew that asking him to help protect all these people would have sent him running, but appealing to his empathy for her, not wanting to let her fail like he had so many times before, would drag him back. This was the first time she had begged him for help like so many others had and she saw how it cornered him and ate away at him. She couldn’t, wouldn’t do that to him; it would completely break him to fail someone again. She gathered herself and looked back up at him

Max watched her as her expression turned calm, a look of weariness replacing the earlier look of fear. She held his gaze for a moment, searching him, then looked away as her mouth opened to stay something, faltered, then tried again.

“We don’t need you, but we could use your help. Gates are up in an hour. If you stay I expect you to do your share.” She said simply, pausing for a moment before finally turning to walk back into the mass of people pushing into the tower.

\------------------

Max sat edgy in his running car, one arm leaning against the windowsill as he agitatedly rubbed his chin. The low sound of a horn emanated from all around him, reverberating in him as it signaled the final call to close the gates. He watched as the lift operated signaled ahead for the last of the cars to exit before lock down. Max stared straight ahead at the last bit of light visible behind the lift, his face slowly settling into a bitter scowl.

\------------

Furiosa walked somberly to the central room, trying to refocus on what was needed. She spotted Capable running passed her to take care of a new crowd.

“Capable, have you see Jack?” Furiosa called out to her.

Capable looked up and froze from her hurried task.  “...I think he went to take out the Bulletfarm stockpile.”

Furiosa had a moment to look taken aback as she stared at her. “...What?!” she blurted out.

Capable was getting distracted by the people needing her help, and she tried to shout back to Furiosa over her shoulder. “I saw him take off with a bike and weapons, he wouldn’t say to where.”

Furiosa stood frozen there, thinking. “Well what about the barricade?!” she called out to Capable.

Capable only had time to turn around and give a shake of the head and a shrug as Furiosa was left there to stand alone. She turned to look out the balcony window, just able to see the teeming mass of people through the openings to the other towers. She could feel them packed in below her, the crowds humming through the stone walls. As she looked out at the cloud of dust stirring on the horizon, Furiosa felt her heart rising in her chest, pounding in her throat as her breath grew more shallow. She was surrounded by a community of people, but she suddenly felt incredibly alone, all the people looking to her to help take care of their own. 

Furiosa worked to steady her breath as she turned to deal with the possibly unfinished barricade. She took a few steps, thinking, then looked up and froze when she saw him there, Max following Capable down a nearby ladder. He looked up to meet her gaze, paused to give an imperceptible nod, and continued down to the tunnels. 

One thought reverberated through her head as she realized  _You cannot die on him._


	32. Chapter 32

Furiosa rushed back up from the barricade to join Capable at the scope. “What do you see?” she asked.

Capable continued scanning the horizon. “Ladders, catapults…” Capable listed off as she peered closer, “...grappling hooks, and ramps.”

Furiosa nodded. “Climbers and kamikazes.” she took a deep breath. “We have enough tar to replace the boiling water?”

Capable nodded, leaning back from the scope. Behind them Fragile was lighting torches, distributing them to warboys. There was nothing else to do now but wait. They booth stood and watched the armada of cars growing on the horizon.

\-----------

There was a steady drip of water echoing somewhere behind him.  Otherwise it was quiet as Max slopped another scoop of sealant onto the the growing wall blocking the accessory tunnel. Behind him he could hear Toast scraping at the bottom of the bucket as she tried to scrounge up the last bit of their makeshift concrete.

“We’re going to need more.” Toast pointed out, letting a final gloop fall back into the bucket. Max looked from the bucket back to the wall. They were only three quarters of the way there.

“I’ll go” he said, and climbed back down to the entrance. He found his way out of the dark passageway to the main corridor, climbing up from the lowest reaches of the citadel. He began to see a few people running back and forth through the halls as he climbed higher, a hum of noise starting to reach down from the upper levels.  A group of warboys went running past him, towing a cart filled with some sort of hodge podge of weapons. Max turned a corner to come to some of the outer edges of the tower, the first balcony he came to lined with a small crowd peering out as more warboys ran passed. He could hear the rumble now outside, and stole a glance past the crowd as he walked by, catching a glimpse of the herd of vehicles circling below. _So they were here._ He walked on confidently for the first time in a while, happy to finally have good news for Furiosa. The seal should be set in the next 12-24 hours, and they had searched everywhere to ensure there were no other breaches. The water problem was solved. One less thing for her to worry about.

He strode into the main room ready to gather the extra materials he had left for Toast before. As he walked in, he was happy to see Furiosa standing at the overlook, back turned to him as she watched the horde down below. He pivoted to go tell her the good news but slowed when she turned to face him after hearing his approach. Instead of steely confidence, Furiosa looked back at him with an absolutely pained expression, eyes red as she looked hear stricken. Max cautiously went up to stand next to her, his heart in his throat as peered down to see what she saw. 

There, below the old water spouts, the horde of weaponized cars and bullet farm boys drove in frenzied circles, a short small man wearing thick glasses and an oversized helmet waving a torch violently in one hand as he called up to Furiosa with a bullhorn, Tasha just visible behind him. In the middle of them all was Jack, strung up on a pyre of scavenged wood and rubber, looking up at the tower with pleading eyes.

Max immediately took off in a sprint, grabbing the charges from the table of supplies as he shouted behind him “When you hear the blast turn it on!”

  
As he ran back to the tunnels, he could just barely make out the small man still shouting from outside “We’re thirsty Furiosa!, why won’t you share! Share the water and extinguish the fire!”


	33. Chapter 33

Max tore down the corridors of the citadel, careening past groups of startled warboys. He burst through the opening of the cavern, scrambling up to the accessory tunnel where Toast still sat studying their makeshift seal.

“I think it needs more on the bottom” she said thoughtfully as Max pushed passed her to punch a hole in the middle of the still goopy concrete.

“What the hell?!” Toast exclaimed as Max persisted in tearing down their seal by wet handfuls. 

Max kept his focus on the tunnel. “If Furiosa doesn’t pull up the water, Jack’s going to die” he said shortly. 

Toast gave a look of consternation, “But she can’t” she said, befuddled “...we’ll lose everything.”

“I know” Max said, furiously scraping out the last of the seal.

Toast gave a look of apprehensive confusion, “But how can she make that choice?” she stammered. 

Max didn’t answer, but pulled out the explosives, unwinding the fuse. “We close it now, she won’t have to.”

Toast stared at the explosives, finally grabbing them from his hand to duck into the tunnel. “I’m smaller, I’ll go” she shouted back as she crawled on knees and elbows into the accessory tunnel.

“Two feet of fuse” Max called after her.

She yelled back, confused “I thought you said 4-”

“No time” Max interrupted, as he focused on lighting a flare to pass back to her.

She rushed to take the flare and turned to light the fuse “How much time?” she asked.

Max anxiously waved her on from the opening of the tunnel. “Don’t know...none.”

Toast lit the fuse and hastily turned to scramble back out. When she was nearly at the edge of the tunnel Max reached in and grabbed her arm to yank her out the rest of the way, pushing her towards the rope to the entrance. He slid down the rope to follow behind, them both tumbling into the passageway just as the blast rocked behind them. 

Max shot up to peer back into the cavern and confirm that the tunnel was blocked. He quickly turned to race back to the main room but briefly skidded to a stop.

“We’ve got to close the entrance-” he said going for the door to the cavern.

“I’ve got it!” Toast shouted, “Just go!”

Max raced back up the corridors, rushing to tell Furiosa it was safe just in case she didn’t hear the blast. He was coming out of the dark lower corridors, working to get to a balcony or opening where he could call up, his ears straining for the sound of water rushing from spouts as he neared the openings. 

He saw light around a corner, and hammered into the last few strides, throwing himself against the wall of the balcony to see.

There was no water mercifully rushing down from the spouts, everything remained dusty and hard. The bulletfarm boys still spun in circles as Jack hung there, head slumped limply forward, the flames reaching up to finally engulf his lifeless body.  Up at the balcony, Furiosa was nowhere to be seen.

\-------------

Max walked to the main room, its doors closed as Cheedo stood against the wall with a look of shock, Capable banging against the door. She was calling out to Furiousa to open up, near tears as her fist pounded away. Max gently pushed her aside as he opened the door to slip in, closing it behind him. 

  
Furiosa sat slumped on the floor, collapsed underneath the lever to the water, still untouched, her rifle on the floor next to her. Max went over to slide in behind her, pulling her against him as he leaned them both against the wall. She resisted for an instant, clenching the sleeve of his jacket in her fist before letting out one ragged sob as she clung to him. 


	34. Chapter 34

Furiosa felt Max look up as the first explosion reverberated from outside. _Not yet_ , she thought, _just a minute longer_. She could feel as he turned back to look at her as a second explosion followed, his arms still draped comfortingly at her side as his face hung behind her ear. “Ready?” he finally asked gently, still studying her.

She closed her eyes, leaning her head back against his shoulder as she forced herself to take in a breath. She opened her eyes again before giving a slow decided nod.

Max unraveled himself to stand, the distant sound of yelling coming through beyond the door as he reached down a hand to encourage her up. Furiosa stared blankly at her rifle for a moment, the tumult from outside finding its way in as she picked it up, slinging it back across her shoulder like a thousand times before. They both stood up and looked out from the balcony to the chaos below.

A circus of kamikazee cars soared through the air, ending in red fireballs against the orange walls of the tower, black scorch marks all that remained after their impact. Below, the haphazard collection of bulletfarm cars danced at the base of the towers, ladders swinging as catapults cranked into position.

Furiosa felt as Max turned to look at her. She waited a moment before turning to meet his gaze, holding it for a moment before finally turning back to rejoin the others, Max following behind. Opening the doors, she found Capable still standing there, readying to pound again on the door. Capable looked up at Furiosa searchingly for a moment, studying her expression questioningly.

“We’ve got kamikazee’s aiming for the barricade.” Capable said, working for a pragmatic tone.

Furiosa nodded “Let them try, no one’s ever gotten high enough. Is the tar ready?”

“Yes, and the acid.”  Capable responded, moving to match Furiosa’s deliberate pace as she began to walk.

“Save the acid, let them waste some kamikazes against the walls, we’ll pour the tar when the climbers start.” Furiosa listed off.

Behind her, Max took to the scopes to scan the crowds below. He could see the small man with the helmet, most likely the Engineer, hiding behind a shield of armored central cars, gauging the ramps with a giant protractor as he scribbled something in a notebook. Looking up from his calculations, he finally shouted “2 more degrees!” to the bulletfarm boys next to him and they cranked the ramp to angle ever so slightly higher. Behind the ramp, bulletfarm boys spun their cars frenetically in circles as they waited their turns, hyped up, two cars wastefully going up in flames as one accidently bumped the other one. All of them were packed to the gills with gunpowder and explosives, going off at the slightest touch or fender bender. One car emerged from the chaos to charge full speed at the ramp, becoming airborne as it took off, reaching higher than any previous car, but still making explosive impact short of the barricaded lift. Behind them, trucks topped with precarious ladders sped towards the base of the towers, warboys steadying the base of the ladder as others scrambled towards the top. The tips of the ladders landed against the side of the stone walls as nearby canons shot grappling hooks that just bounced off the sheer cliffs. The ladders landed against the wall at a measly height on the south tower, far too short, but Max watched as the bulletfarm boys eagerly scrambled to the top, and then continued past the end of the ladder to inexplicably continue up the sheer wall.

Furiosa was guiding Toast to unleash the first drop of tar when Max called out to her.

“Ropes.” he called out, “Tasha set ropes.” Furiosa’s head snapped up and she grabbed the scope to see for herself. Her lips pursed as she watched, turning up slightly to a thin sneer, finally looking up to gesture down the hall to Max. He grabbed his pack and they two took off down the hall towards the catwalks connecting the towers.

\-----

Furiosa raced through the shadowed corridors, catching glimpses of daylight ahead as they neared the catwalks. She could sense Max behind her as the walls rumbled around them, dust bursting in the hall with each impact. The corridor finally opened up in front of them to expansive blue sky but she stopped at the edge, pressing her back against the protective walls to peer out at the chaos below, Max pulling up beside her. Beyond the airy space between the towers, she could make out the white flecks of bullet farm boys scurrying up the wall, the people tucked in the tower above beginning to look down in alarm through the available balconies. She pulled up her rifle to get a better look through the scope.

“What do you see?” Max asked, prepping any available weapons as he moved the ax to a more accessible location, unreservedly reaching over to take the extra pistol from Furiosa’s hip.

“Two, maybe 3 chains...hidden in cracks running up the wall.” She shook her head, cursing herself for not thinking of it sooner. They would have to be quick to cut them down. She lowered the scope to look down through the expanse below. The fiery cars still circled, fireballs from the catapults whizzing across the space underneath them. _How were they getting that high?_ She frowned to herself, the weight of doubt starting to grow in the pit of her stomach again. _No one’s ever gotten that high_. They were still short of the barricade she reassured herself, checking again that their coast was clear. She gestured to Max to get ready, stepped out to take off along the open catwalk when Max immediately pulled her back as a catapulted fireball went whizzing past. They booth peered out from back in the safety of the corridor and looked at each other.

“We’re just going to have to go really fast.” Max offered as they stared at the long stretch of open catwalk between them and the next tower. Furiosa looked across it, eyes wide as she pursed her lips in annoyed exasperation. They both took a deep breath, then took off in a sprint.

A fireball gracefully arced underneath them as they took their first few strides across the metal grating. The noise of the siege below echoed distantly in Furiosa’s ears as they both focused on their goal of the tower ahead of them. Another fireball whizzed ahead of her, just missing their catwalk as it passed to hit the next one over, a hideous crunch of metal audible as the fireball made impact. They kept running, boots pounding the metal as they stayed ducked down in their sprint. The whirring of another fireball could be heard just behind them when they felt a violent shudder, followed by the floor dropping out from underneath them.


	35. Chapter 35

The both clung to the metal rails of the catwalk as the end behind them gave way, detaching from the rockwall with a bloodcurdling wrench of metal.  The floor dropped for a few feet before violently jamming back against the cliff wall, Furiosa and Max both falling to the floor with the impact, clinging onto the sharp metal grating. Max snapped his head up to look at the damage behind them, the catwalk precariously wedged against the rock far below the original entrance.

“Up up up!” he yelled, as he pulled them both up the now steep catwalk to the still intact exit ahead. The unstable catwalk immediately creaked and groaned under their weight. Furiosa slowed when she say that the metal joints ahead of them were twisted and contorted, barely holding on after the damage. Max pulled up behind her and they both stared at the last remaining connections holding the catwalk when one of the joints suddenly snapped, giving them another stomach twisting lurch downward.

“Down.” Max said in an alarmed voice. “Down, down, down” he pushed them back to the edge of the catwalk, pulling the rope from his pack to loop it around one of the rails and dropping it down into the expanse below. They both stared at it as it hung there nowhere close to the ground. Suddenly there was a creaking groan as the last joint failed and the catwalk plummeted. They both fell to the floor, Max catching Furiosa as he tried to hold them both close against the rail. The plunging catwalk suddenly slammed to a stop as it wedged against the cliff, nearly throwing Max and Furiosa off as it tilted and turned before coming to a stop.  

Furiosa felt Max look up carefully from where he tried to hold them both, eyeing the precariously wedged catwalk. Furiosa in the meantime stared down at the end of rope, still dangling a good 20-30 feet off the ground. Max turned to eye the rope as well, his gaze continuing to the weak railing used to attach the rope. He moved slowly and carefully to taked his weight off of Furiosa, aware of how delicately the catwalk was now balanced.

“One at a time” he nodded toward her, “Go.”

Skipping any debate, Furiosa moved as deftly as she could to shift her weight over to the rope as Max worked to counter the shift in mass. She’d have to figure out the last few feet when she got there.

Furiosa slid down the course rope, nothing but air around her as she descended as quickly as possible. She slowed near the end, steadying herself by wrapping a leg around the rope, and peered down to the ground below.

 _It was too high_. If she dropped, she would break both her legs or end up a cripple. She sucked in a breath, the longer she took the more time she wasted for Max to get down, and the more likely they both would come plummeting down with the catwalk anyways. Her eyes darted around quickly looking for any possible solution, but she hung there with nothing to grab onto.

Then she say him, the bulletfarm boy swinging wildly on top of a ladder, shouting to the others as he pointed at her. The ladder car spun toward her as she hung there like a sitting duck. She scrambled to find a defense, trying to climb up or move her momentum out of his way as the bulletfarm boy careened towards her, swinging a machete wildly from his perch on the ladder. He was right at her height, descending upon her as she struggled to reach for her pistol while holding on to the rope. Her eyes widened as she ran out of time, the bulletfarm boy almost at her when she suddenly felt herself swing to the side as he spun past her, missing his target. Furiosa held on tight as the rope swung in a wide arc, noting the other bulletfarm boys turning to join in the onslaught. She looked up to see Max desperately swinging the rope while also trying to keep the catwalk balanced. She clung on helplessly as he controlled her swing, Max straining to keep her out of the path of the charging circus of bulletfarm boys on top of ladders and poles.

Furiosa left herself in Max’s hands as her mind reeled to think of a strategy. She had to get down. With every swing of the rope Max risked falling. She was going to lose him if she didn’t think of something fast. On the latest swing, she cranked her neck to look back at the nearest oncoming bulletfarm boy, eyes narrowing as she tried to time his approach on the ladder. She counted to herself, calculating how close Max’s next swing would take her to the ladder. Following with her eyes, she waited patiently for the right moment, timing the momentum of Max’s swing and jumped, body slamming into the ladder as her hand grasped for a rail.

Her feet kicked underneath her and she tried to find purchase, looking up in time to see the bulletfarm boy raise a boot to violently kick her off. She just barely dodged his first attempt, quickly moving to hook her prosthetic around the ladder, reaching down for her pistol with the other hand, shooting the bulletfarm boy above her.  He went tumbling off as Furiosa looked below, fast forwarding to think of how she could take care of the driver. She slid down the ladder as the driver began throwing random objects at her, trying to stave her off while avoiding impact with the other explosive cars. She swatted away at the objects, timing it to get a clear shot, taking him out and quickly pushing him out to the racing sand below.

She took hold of the wheel, assessing the equipment as she maneuvered the car, doing a double take when she realized that the car was laden with explosives just like the rest; pinto’d up to explode at the slightest impact. She looked up in time to swerve from an oncoming bulletfarm car, barely dodging it to avoid setting off the explosives. She quickly took in the circus of cars surrounding her, working to avoid any impact as she stole a sideways look back up to Max. _He needed to get down._  Furiosa cranked the wheel to turn back toward the still dangling rope, swerving around the other cars as she saw Max starting to slide down the rope.

He was hanging there when she tried to pass the ladder underneath him, just missing at the last minute as she had to swerve to avoid another kamikaze car trying to crash into her. She turned again, trying to get to Max as she saw the catwalk screech above him, dropping a few more feet as Max struggled to hang on. This time Furiosa managed to hit her target, Max catching the ladder as she worked to avoid the others. She felt him slide down the ladder to plop down in the seat next to her, looking at her, looking at the layers of volatile explosives, then looking back at her with wide-eyed consternation. _It was the best I could do_ , she countered wordlessly.

Max hung on as she swerved to miss another charging kamikazee car, cranking the wheel as she tried to avoid the slightest impact with the oncoming onslaught. They danced around the cars, just barely grazing another as she angled back toward the south tower. Max tapped on her shoulder, pointing to the ladders helping bulletfarmer boys up to the ropes. She nodded and swerved in that direction, slowing enough for Max to tuck and roll as he went to try and cut down the ladders. Furiosa continued, diverting attention from him as she careened through the chaos.

Furiosa out maneuvered one, then two, more cars, letting them crash into each other as she deftly snuck behind an outcropping to finally hide from the melee. There she spun the car and finally had a moment to take in the battle.

Everything was fire and crunching metal, the bulletfarm army steadily encroaching up the towers as the people above tried in vain to throw them off. The kamikaze cars and catapulted fireballs were surging higher and higher, nearly at the barricaded lift. Her breath hitched. _They were losing_. It was only a matter of time before the onslaught breached the barricade. She worked to steady herself as her eyes flitted across the offenses in front of her, desperate to see how she could turn the tide.

Then she saw it. Right in front of her was the central core of bulletfarm cars, the heart and brain where all supplies and strategy gathered. Somehow she had ended up behind their armored front, directly in line to the soft exposed underbelly. She looked around at the kamikaze car in front of her, searching for any kind of weapon, when her eyes focused on one object, sitting innocently in front of her. She studied it for a moment as it gleamed back at her, a droplet of silver running down the side of the can of chrome. She looked back up at the Engineer’s cars ahead of her, a clear unobstructed path, everyone unaware of her position. _This was it_ she realized as she distantly heard the explosions continue in the background. She was right level with them, at the wheel of this twisted ball of rusty metal and jagged edges, right in line with those other steel clawed cockroaches that had populated this place for far too long. They had all served their purpose but now their time needed to end. She could drive right into the heart of them, clearing a path for those aspiring humans tucked high above.

She tentatively reached down to the silver droplet dancing in the light, her finger delicately grazing it as a drop now hung on her fingertip. She stared at it curiously as she brought it to her lip, pressing it there as she thought, suddenly feeling calmer. She remembered when all she would have asked for was a good end, one time when she could be free of the compulsion to survive.

She looked out at Max then, still fighting off bulletfarm boys as he tried to hack down the ladders. She felt like she just needed one last look, a final salute as a kind of recognition. She watched him, waiting for him to just turn and see her, but he was still struggling with the army around him, distracted. She pictured his face if instead he just turned to see a fireball and realize she was gone, she pictured his face and...her breath came out ragged, still staring at him hoping he would turn. She grew more frustrated as she felt herself gripping the steering wheel harder. Her lips started to turn in a grimace as she kept hesitating. _Goddamn it_ , she thought, _Goddamn it_ she felt the scream rising up inside her, suddenly unable to move forward. She stared back at the center of bulletfarm cars, still totally unaware of her, and she couldn’t do it. She realized she couldn’t do it. Furiosa suddenly screamed out, banging and pulling at the steering wheel as she slammed a fist into the dashboard in anger.

She took a deep seething breath, slowly looking up from her outpouring of anger. She watched them all, scurrying in front of her, breaking down the walls piece by piece. And then it finally happened: a massive explosion followed by a screeching of metal, a cheer going up from the bulletfarm boys. Furiosa turned her head. The barricade had been hit, a gaping hole now exposing the lift within. _It was too late_ , she thought. _People may die now...they would die and for what?_

She looked out and then she saw him, Max standing and looking back at her, a furrow in his brow turning from confusion to realization as he saw her position and put together the pieces.

Furiosa glowered back at him, so angry she had just given up a clean chance at redemption for someone who wouldn't even stick around. She was unwillingly being sucked into his look as he stared at her. Their connection was broken suddenly however when the sound of the lift emanated from beyond the ruptured barricade. Furiosa looked up in confusion as the lift they had taken so much effort to cordon off began lowering down to the ground. She strained to see what was on the platform, when a high pitched cry emanated from within.

  
“Witness!” a small voice cried out as the lift came into view, a massive herd of tiny war pups on top, scampering off the platform as they charged at the bulletfarm boys with small makeshift swords.


	36. Chapter 36

Somewhere high up in the citadel, a parent cried out a panic-stricken “Nooo!” before everyone froze, suddenly silent as they watched the children of the citadel spill out into the free-for-all below. Even the bulletfarm boys looked confused for a moment, not sure how to handle the ferocious 5 year olds now charging them. They stood, weapons half raised uncertainly, as the herd of war pups descended upon them, swords swinging wildly as one pup gave a determined _whack_ against the first perplexed bulletfarm boy he met.

The bulletfarm boy looked down in surprise at the thin line of blood now forming on his arm. He snapped his head up to the war pup, gave out a roar, and violently swatted the pup with the back of his hand, sending the young tot flying backwards. The bulletfarm boy next to him immediately looked over in shocked disgust, diving toward his former compatriot as he immediately went to pull him off the crumpled war pup. Suddenly the steady upward surge of the bulletfarm army disjoined into a chaotic mess, half of the bulletfarm boys swatting at the pups, the other half distracted as they tried to safely push them out of the way.

Above, there was a second roar of activity as a climbing bulletfarm boy came careening off the south tower to land with a splat below. The tower suddenly woke up in a flurry of activity as the people previously tucked inside erupted with a surge of protective energy, leaving the shelter of the tower to heedlessly take out the encroaching bulletfarm boys, pouring out onto the ropes to get to the children below.

Max turned to look up from attempting to cut down the ladders and saw a wave of citadel residents clambering down the ropes. He was suddenly left with bracing the ladder he had so desperately been trying to cut down, holding it up as residents tore down it to come to the aid of the loose war pups. He finally managed to slip away, ducking just in time as a second bulletfarm boy came plunging to the ground next to him. He dove into the chaos with the rest of them, cutting down a bulletfarm boy that had a strangle hold on a pup, grabbing as many kids as he could as he went. He had one kicking and snarling 4 year old under his arm as he grabbed another by the pant loop to toss him back onto the relative safety of the lift as more people came streaming out, Max diving back into the crowd to try and grab more kids.

Furiosa watched it all from her isolated position. She looked on as the hundreds now spilled out onto the battlefield, a wave of people washing over the tangle of metal and flames. The numbers that had made her so anxious before were now a terrifying mob over which she had no control. She was completely insignificant standing there, detached from any decision leading to their death or survival, every action she had taken had only held them back. They were now unleashed on the Engineer, that tiny man and his hodge podge army of weakened bulletfarm boys. The meager army was quickly enveloped in the crowd, the last few remaining cars being run out of town as the residents swarmed, a few people of the citadel clinging ferociously onto the cars as they careened back into the wasteland.

Furiosa got out to walk, detached, through the edges of crowd.  All around her, people were rushing to each other, reuniting with people they cared about after the conflict. A boy flew past her to the outstretched arms of his caregiver, them both completely unaware of her as they hugged in relief. Furiosa kept walking, passing the still smoldering pile of rubble under the main tower. She didn’t want to see it, see any of it, she wanted to go back into the hidden dark shadows of the corridors, tucked away in her private room with the heavy latch.

She heard him call out behind her then, and she turned to see Max hurriedly walking toward her. She stood there waiting, his demeanor changing as he got closer, suddenly looking angry. He walked right up to her, accosting her as he reached a hand up, holding her chin tight as his eyes dropped to her lips, tracing a thumb across them as she stared back at him defiantly. He turned his thumb to study it, a smear of silver still barely visible.  She watched him, not saying a word as he looked at her questioningly. Getting no response, he finally shook his head with a sneer, turning to head back into the melee. As he walked away she finally spoke.

“When you leave this time,” she called out as Max froze, back still turned, “…don’t come back.” He remained there for another moment before continuing to walk away.

\-----------

Among the still smoldering pile of rubble, Max found what he could of his remains and buried them for her. At night, he paced as the rest of the citadel slept soundly, no more threat to justify his anxiousness. There were no nightmares, he was just wound up, antsy, and it was out of place in the now calm quiet tower. He finally got up, thinking to himself _it_   _was long overdue_ as he walked out of his room.

  
He walked quietly down the corridors of the sleeping citadel and found himself at the heavy door, latch lifted as it sat slightly ajar. Pushing it open silently, he saw Furiosa inside, seemingly sleeping peacefully with her back to him.  He stood there for a moment, hesitating as he watched different scenarios play out in his head, his expression slowly settling into a scowl the longer he stood. Finally, he took one furtive step in, grabbed the small radio from the table by her bed, and slipped back out the door.


	37. Chapter 37

She just needed to get behind the rocks and then she could die. Just a bit farther, a bit more till she would go and they couldn’t bring her back again. She could hear the crows again now that the motors had cut, the wasteland beacons persistently calling out their location to any roaming scavengers nearby. Furiosa continued to crawl, her chapped, cracked elbows grinding into the sand as she weakly dragged her body through the dust. Three hundred days she had lasted; three hundred days she had been able to stay away since the one kind man had dropped her off by the once hopeful settlement. Now they were strung out behind her in a line as each dropped from thirst, the few remaining crying out behind her as the war party cut them down. Their goodness had just been superficial, gone the moment the water ran out. And now she just needed to keep away for a little while longer, just a thread was left before she perished like the rest, finally not giving in to crawl back, begging for water again.

Then she heard the boots, the unmistakable stride of the one man who would walk confidently in this world. The desperation rose in her as she tried to quicken her pace, the crunching of his boots now coming up right behind her, finally stopping to stand at her side. After a moment studying her on the ground, he knelt down next to her, leaning forward to confirm her familiar face, teenage youth now splintered and cracked with dehydration.

“Remember me?” Joe asked, taunting her. She didn’t dare turn toward him; she could sense the cool glass of water in his hand. The entire content of the air had changed with the presence of moisture nearby. A drop or two of condensation from the glass landed at her side. It burned where it hit her arm, but she steeled herself, pushing herself up to continue away from him.

“There’s nothing else out there Furiosa” Joe called out after her as she continued to crawl. He finally gave out a sigh, stood up from where he squatted, and walked up to stand in front of her, pouring a small trickle of water in front of her path. She froze, the water directly in her way, it quickly absorbing into the sand, disappearing. She continued to stare at it, her frustration growing as she couldn’t move, her brows furrowed in pain as her belly finally collapsed on the ground, no longer able to hold her weight. _Just die_ , she thought desperately, _just go and the thirst will be gone, just refuse him and it will be over_. Her head lay on the hot dry skin of her arm, inhaling more dust with each breath, her tongue so thick and course it felt like it blocked any air from coming in.

He knelt beside her again, holding out the cup over her face. “C’mon on now, no need for this” he said calmly, comfortingly, as he let a drop of water fall to hit her dusty cheek. It ran down her skin to her cracked, parched lips that she held firmly shut, the water still finding seams in the cracks. A single drop slipped through, the cool wetness filled her mouth. She had to actively fight the impulse to gulp, it screamed at her as she tried to just hold the liquid in her mouth without taking it in. He slipped a hand to cradle her head, his fingers in her long blond hair that had since turned brittle as he gently turned her mouth up to the glass. Her breathing grew ragged through her nose as she tried to keep her mouth screwed shut. Still cradling her head, Joe delicately poured another trickle of cool water to her mouth. She screwed her eyes shut tight, focusing all her power on resisting, trying….but as always, her body took over. It tricked her, allowing the tiniest gulp while she wasn’t focused, the cool water immediately filling her throat. Joe kept pouring, gently with a “That a girl”, as more water seeped into her mouth and she lost the ability to fight it. Her mouth opened a crack to accept the water, growing hungry for it, her body taking over.

She had lost control and her hand reflexively reached up to try and hold glass, desperate for more. Joe acted swiftly, slamming her hand back down as his gentle hold turned violent, grabbing her hair to force her head back. He poured the rest of the water onto her face, letting it forcibly fill her mouth and nose as she sputtered and struggled, unable to breath.

“You want to live,” he growled as he emptied the glass in her face  “you live by my hand,” pushing her head down as he threw her shoulders down, forcing himself on her for the 100th time. As always, she fought back in any way she could. Her readiness to die from just a few moments before solidified into anger, building the more she struggled even though she knew it was a lost cause.

He left her in the sand where he had found her, the glass of water tipped over next to her. Eventually the warboys came and helped her up to the cars, knowing what it was like to be put in their place by Joe. She sat in the back of the truck with them as they drove back to the citadel, the emptiness of the sand stretching out everywhere she could see. There was nothing, not a single sign of some other way of life out there, no sign of anything but the citadel.

\------------

Furiosa let the memory unravel in her head as she stood by the silver water taps, surveying the growing town below. She felt reassured by just standing there, the taps peacefully sitting close by. Capable would chide her for guarding them, reminding her that there were no other threats out there. It had been weeks since the bulletfarm army had been driven away, but she still couldn’t shake the habit of checking on them, confirming they still sat undisturbed.

Those taps had tormented her for so long, and after everything, she still didn’t control them. She looked out at the crowds below. They were way more of a formidable protector than she could ever be. She had felt useless compared to them, but now their diffuse power comforted her. The water would be available to the masses no matter what she did.

Furiosa went back to her room, the heavy latch on her door now a blight on the bustling crowds passing in the hallway. She glanced at the empty spot on the table where the radio had once sat before Max had taken off with it, disappearing with it back into the wasteland.  

She remained there, standing in the doorway, for the first time in a long time uncertain of what to do with herself. There was no more Green place to find, no water to scavenge, no real threats to protect against. She had tried working toward a better life here, and the end result of that lay buried somewhere out in the sand. There had been no easy redemption for the things she had done, no clean canceling out. They would just sit with her, a part of her as much as her memories of the Green place.

Furiosa looked again at the empty spot on the table, finally coming to a conclusion as she grabbed her things and headed down to the cars.

\-------------

She had been on the road for two weeks, sitting now on the hood of her car as she enjoyed a calm morning filled with pink and orange sand. The citadel as always sat comfortingly somewhere at her back. She was mulling which direction to go today, when she looked to the east and saw the beginnings of a sandstorm churning up in the distance. She suddenly remembered the writings she and Max had found in the caravan so long ago now. The note on the board telling of ‘more water than you could ever want’ in the northern mountains after a easterly storm.

  
A small smile crept on her lips as she got in car, turning it to head north.


	38. Chapter 38

Furiosa stood perplexed as she studied the jumbled mass of smashed cars. They were piled atop each other in the corner of the dried out old river bed, each successively more rusty towards the inside of the pile. She bent down to peer towards the innermost of the wreckage, the wheels of one car half buried in silt. She squinted, swearing she saw a blade of green there after a slight breeze.

She couldn’t make sense of it; all the car parts she would have scavenged were still there, but someone had obviously been there to pillage parts. Strips of rubber were ripped from the tires, doors removed, but the engines were still there ripe for the picking.

She left the junkyard to drive the rest of the way up the steep riverbed before it ended in the wall of mountains, the natural arch marking the entrance to a small slot canyon. Furiosa noted his car stashed behind some boulders on the opposite side of the river bed as she continued on foot. Her boots crunched on the sand as she walked into the canyon, the steep cliff walls towering close at her sides.

She walked steadily higher, occasionally having to climb up steep scrambles before barely squeezing through narrow openings. She looked above at one point to see a huge log wedged into the orange cliff walls high above. As she turned another corner, she began to hear the sound of scrambled static coming from farther ahead.

Furiosa slowed as the slot canyon relinquished to an open bowl, surrounded by steep walls on each side. She crept around the corner, Max nowhere in sight as the radio sat on the ground, a series of holes sprawled out where he had become frustrated in his search for ground water.  She cocked her head as she listened to the radio coming in and out as its energy waned, just making out Fragile’s voice broadcasting the reading of another novel from the citadel.  

From another passage hidden behind a scramble above she heard him, shovel scraping against rock as he muttered to himself. She realized he was filling in the words to the novel every time Fragile’s voice faded. _God he could be weird sometimes_ she thought to herself as she discreetly slipped from the canyon out onto the open floor. She crept past the dry attempts at wells scattered about the ground to reach the radio, almost silent now as it needed another crank of the handle. _He would be back soon for it_ she reminded herself as she carefully bent down to seize the handle.

The sand next to her exploded as an ax thrummed into the ground, landing a foot from her hand. Her head snapped up and she saw him there, standing atop the scramble, glaring at her as he caught her red handed, his expression of accusation just barely hiding a hint of happy relief. He cocked his head, warning her not to...when Furiosa gave a sly smile, grabbed the radio, and ran.


	39. Chapter 39

Furiosa sprinted back towards the start of the slot canyon, tracking Max from the corner of her eye as she ran. He was keeping pace as he rushed to scramble down, jumping agilely onto the steep slope that ran along above her. She was almost to the dark slit of the canyon when he threw himself into a slide to plummet down the rest of the slope, taking her out at the legs while also cushioning her fall with his body.

She landed on top of him with an omph, slamming into his chest as the fall knocked the wind out of both of them, the radio scattering away. Max rolled up to chase after it, but Furiosa knocked his arm out from under him and he slammed back into the ground. She took the opportunity to scramble back on top of him, grasping at his jacket and shoulders to pull ahead as she drove a knee into his back to keep him down. He started to push himself up despite her added weight, but she quickly leaned a hand on the back of his head to hold him down while helping herself back up to her feet, only easing up on it as she rose for the sprint.

Her leg was immediately yanked out from under her before she could stand. She landed face down a foot away from the radio as Max tried to pull her back, his hands grabbing her leg as he moved from her boot to her calf, towing her backwards hand over hand. Furiosa quickly rolled onto her back to kick him off as he switched to defend himself, trying to get a hold of her other leg to keep it from hitting his face as Furiosa leaned back to reach for the radio.

Max finally got past the kicking boots, pinning one of her legs with his body weight as he freed his hands to reach over her to her outstretched arm. Furiosa jammed her prosthetic firmly against the side of his torso to try to push him off, raising her one free leg to wedge a foot into his hip and gain enough purchase to push him back.

Max gave a grunt of frustration as he tried to push her leg out from under him, grabbing the inside of her knee to pry it off of him as Furiosa twisted under his weight. She tried a last effort to pull Max’s arm off of her leg just as he finally managed to pull her leg out from under him, pin it down with his weight as well, at the same time grabbing her prosthetic arm to swiftly throw it above her head and pin it along with the her other hand.

Finally getting her still, he leaned over to yell a frustrated “What?!”

She glared back at him, pinned there, breath heaving, “I want it back!” was all she shouted as she stared back in confrontation.

He leaned in closer with a scowl, looking like he was about to say something, when his head suddenly snapped up to look at their hands. He suddenly paused, his brow furrowed, as he seemed distracted by something. His eyes moving to look at the cliff above them, and then turning to study the canyon below.

Furiosa lay there panting from the struggle, his weight still on top of her, confused at what had suddenly changed. She watched him continue to think when she felt it too, the cool wetness hitting her still outstretched hand. She tilted her head back to look and was surprised to find a small rivulet of water running into their hands. Her eyes followed it to see a stream of water coming down from the cliff above. She felt Max let go of their hands and sit up as she rolled over to look at the small cascade, giving out a sharp exhale in amazement. Somewhere behind her, she could distantly hear Max pacing in the sand, still thinking, but she was completely entranced by the freely moving water in front of her.  

She tentatively got up to walk towards it, delicately reaching out a hand to test the reality of the cool water. Her eyes followed it up to the top of the cliff. She stared perplexed as a small object, a branch, just visible at the top of the cliff, bobbing up and down in an odd motion. Behind her she could sense Max anxiously rummaging around, gathering his things as he mumbled that they should go.

She ignored him as she continued to revel in the water, the stream getting stronger and coming in waves with each bob of the branch above. Somewhere behind her Max was calling to her to get moving as he started to rush to head back down the canyon. She was still staring at the bobbing branch when Max realized she wasn’t following him. He skidded to a stop, abruptly turned and restlessly grabbed her belt loop to yank her out of the trance, “...now!” he chided.

She shot him an annoyed look as she followed, turning to glance back just in time to see the small branch bob up gently again, suddenly revealing a larger log attached to it as it rose up a final time to come tumbling over the cliff, a wall of water unleashed behind it as a waterfall now poured down the cliff face. All the dry wells Max had dug were quickly washed away, logs and debris charging forward with the water.

Furiosa quickly turned back to follow after Max, following his rushed pace down the narrow slot canyon as small streams of water were now visible all around the cliffs surrounding them. Their feet now hit puddles in the sand, pools of water growing deeper the farther they descended. The rivulets from each side canyon were turning into waterfalls as the ground underneath them quickly disappeared into a river of muddy water and debris, rushing quickly downward into the canyon below.

They hopped down another steep scramble and ended up in water up to their waists. Max paused at a narrow gap in the canyon, letting Furiosa squeeze through as water rushed by her on all sides. She stopped at the other side, and grabbed Max’s arm to help pull him through, yanking at his jacket collar as he barely squeeze by. She thought back to the log she had seen lodged high above her on her walk in.. _.how high can the water go?_ she thought uneasily.

She was comforted by Max behind her as they waded to the next drop in the canyon, the water pushing against their backs as they tried to keep their balance, catching each other anytime the other slipped. Peering over the next drop that was now a waterfall, they saw that there was now a river below them, churning and rushing down the rest of the canyon. The both stopped there, staring down. Max turned to her, hair plastered to his head as he stood there soaking wet, trying to yell over the sound of the water rushing around them.

“Can you swim?” he finally got out over the surrounding roar.

Furiosa furrowed her brow, staring at the churning water below them. She shook her head, yelling back.

“Can’t remember” she answered honestly.

Max nodded, making sure to show he had a hold of her before they tried to carefully climb down the cliff behind the rushing water. They were halfway down when the a foothold suddenly collapsed beneath them, sending them both plunging into the river below.

The turbulent water immediately tried to tear them apart, Furiosa struggling to keep a hold of Max as she was churned around while still under the surface. She finally popped up, gasping for air as she tried to stand up and regain her footing as the river pushed them forward. Max immediately kicked her feet out from under her as he pulled in closer to her, shouting “Keep your feet up!” He wrapped an arm around her, his legs under hers as he tried to keep them close and free from obstructions as the current dragged them forward feet first.

They were quickly carried down as more water poured in from the side canyons, chunks of debris washing past them. Max turned in surprise as something hit his back, the carcass of a dead animal rushing past them. As he watched it, Furiosa suddenly leaned back, yelling out a curse as she tried to swim back. Max just had time to recognize the wall of water slamming into the freshly jammed log ahead before Furiosa turned around to push his head under the water to try and pass underneath. He barely caught a breath before plunging under the surface, trying to pull Furiosa down with him to miss the log. She barely got under, just managing to hold her breath in as she felt the impact of her head hitting the bottom of the hard wood above. As the water kept pulling them through the blockade, she felt herself get caught up on previously unseen submerged branches, snagging at her clothes to keep her under as the water pressed her against them. She managed to snap one branch free as she finally untangled herself. She was nearly out of air when she felt her foot get caught on something underneath. Panic started rising in her as she couldn’t fight the current to reach down and free it, when suddenly she felt a tug from Max’s hand as the current pulled him free and helped him yank her out.

Furiosa came to the surface gasping for air again, a wave of water hitting her face as the current gave her no rest. The water was rushing higher now as Max clung to her again, and they could begin to see hints of a now darkened sky at the end of canyon. They rose up with a wave, and were given a terrifying glimpse of a surging river where the dry riverbed had once been, one particular rapid just a tower of violent white foam where the current hit a boulder. They had just enough time to register Furiosa’s car being pulled by the current, tossed and flipped as it hit the wall of water before careening into that curious pile of cars in the bend of the river, joining it as it slammed into it with a wrenching screech.  

They looked at each other. _They did not want to end up there_. They were almost to the end of the canyon, about to be spit out to the rapids below. Max kicked to get a higher viewpoint, looking around as much as he could with the waves splashing in his face. He saw something and tried to free up an arm from keeping afloat and holding Furiosa to point towards the left embankment where his car was stashed.

“That way, swim hard” he yelled over the rushing water.

A second later, they were spit out into a churning pool below, plunged underwater as the rapids twisted them around before spitting them out, trying to keep hold of each other as it tore at them. Popping up, Furiosa caught a breath as Max immediately pushed them to swim, holding onto her with one hand as he threw his arm into the water. She saw it, the calm water in the eddy on the opposite bank before the bend in the river. Furiosa pushed on as hard as she could, trying to adapt to her heavy prosthetic just sinking under the surface. They were both kicking as fervently as possible to beat the current, barely inching forward as it kept sweeping them downstream.

They were losing time before they could reach the calm shore. Almost to the eddyline, Max gave Furiosa a push forward, sending her into the calm water as he now swam with all his effort to catch up. Furiosa got up and ran as quickly as possible along the bank, sprinting to the end of the eddy to reach out and grab Max as he tried to gain purchase on a rock before being swept downstream.

Furiosa reached down to get a solid grip on his forearm, drenched as his wet shirt clung to it. She leaned back to put her full weight into it as he tried to get his footing, them both collapsing into the muddy bank as he was pulled free from the current. They lay there catching their breath, Max’s arm still pulled across her body as the current lapped at his feet. After a few moments resting there, Max gathered himself to get up, reaching over to check her head where there was a spot of blood from the tree trunk, and then plopped down next to her as they both stared at the surging river in front of them.

The debris in the eddy bobbed peacefully as the current ripped violently behind it. From the mountains, water was streaming from every crack and side canyon to empty into the river below, carrying with it all the hidden debris that had accumulated there for months or years. Above the mountains, dark storm clouds were raging as they towered up into the atmosphere, spitting out rain somewhere in the distance.

It was a new palate of blue, grey, and crimson red in the clouds. They both stared silently at the violent beauty of it, more water than either had seen in decades. The moment was broken though, when they both noticed a small object bobbing in the eddy in front of them. Furiosa lowered her brows as she looked over at Max. He didn’t dare return her gaze, but awkwardly cleared his throat before walking down to the eddy to reach in and pluck out the small emergency radio. He walked back to sit next to her, tipping it to watch the water pour out from the now ruined electronics.

Furiosa shook her head as he tried to hide a smirk, giving the radio another shake to clear out the water. She reached over to grab his hand holding the radio, when a flash of light ripped through the sky, followed by a crack of thunder. They both flinched, noticing that the dark clouds were now unfurling overtop of them.

  
Max grabbed her outstretched hand, leading them both to the relative safety of his car high on the embankment. He opened the trunk, let Furiosa in, before hopping in after her and closing the trunk behind them.


	40. Max has a girl over

Furiosa clambered into the cramped cargo space, making room for Max as he scrunched in next to her. She looked on as he closed the trunk door behind them, the gusting wind muffled with a heavy click. They both leaned forward to peer out at the storm as they tried to catch their breath.

It was quiet in the car behind them, each movement and breath suddenly noticeable in the heavy silence. Furiosa could feel it as Max looked over at her. Her eyes self-consciously followed down, her entire body covered in mud as the cold started to seep in. She stalled with the practical, just to gather herself for a moment, reaching down awkwardly to try and remove her boots in the cramped space.

She was struggling with a buckle when Max reached over and grabbed her feet, swinging them over to his lap. Furiosa sat there momentarily frozen, her feet propped up as she couldn't stop watching him start to undo each strap. She realized her lips hung slightly parted from the shortness of breath, and as usual she fought to mask exertion, closing her lips as she reminded herself to swallow. She continued to watch him, his fingers working the tight knots of her laces, a line of mud covering his jawline as his breath still came in staggered.

Max removed the boots with a tug, bare feet underneath. He made a small noise when he saw the mud between her toes, then leaned back in his bed space to rummage for a cloth, one hand wrapped snuggly around her chilled ankles to brace himself. Furiosa shook herself back to the present, taking the moment to peel off the muddy pants from her outstretched legs, wet leather sticking to her skin as she stripped down to simple white fabric underneath. She felt Max’s fingers twitched as her feet slipped out from under his hand, still muttering something to himself as he rummaged through the mess behind them. She kneeled in the available space next to him as she reached around to undo the buckles on her mud-caked prosthetic.

Max finally sat up to hold out a towel, only to find Furiosa kneeling in front of him. He seemed to glance at her for moment, remaining stuck there with the towel still awkwardly outstretched in his hand. She could see him out of the corner of her eye as she focused on the buckles, his chest still rising and falling beneath that ragged collar of his shirt. She took a breath. She knew what was coming, and for the first time in a while she felt apprehensive, a tension spreading across her stomach as it became harder to maintain her sealed expression.

She moved to the next buckle, Max reaching up in a distracted attempt to help, failing as he instead just hooked his finger on a strap while he hung there uncertainly. She was nearly done, releasing the last buckle, hastily moving to shrug her prosthetic off her shoulder. The metal got caught up and Max immediately reached behind her, impatiently shaking it off as Furiosa braced herself with a hand against his shoulder. She felt her fingers shift to the collar of his jacket as he finally freed the tangle behind her.

She couldn't stop herself then as she gave the tiniest tug on his collar, keeping him close as he started to straighten back up. It was all he needed as his hand went immediately to the back of her neck, quickly turning her the rest of the way for a first brush of her lips. She felt a mist of sensation hit them, lips parting in response before she could stop it. Her body turned towards it, terrifying how quickly the momentum took over as she just sank into him, the warm sensation of the kiss immediately dominating her attention.

Max took a sharp breath as he reached his arm around her waist, momentarily forgetting about the mud covered sleeves. She protested when he nearly broke away because of it, instead keeping him close while she pushed her hand under his coat to help, shoving it off of the bulk of his shoulders as he tried to shrug it off with a shake of his arms behind him, his soaked shirt following. He immediately slid his hands past her waist to roughly pull her in tight, her stomach suddenly dropping out from under her.

They were both grabbing at each other now, the unfamiliar feeling of warm bare skin spurring them on as they got carried away in it. Her mouth was open and accepting and she was just drinking in the kiss, everything a background to that all-encompassing feeling. She couldn’t orient herself, figure out each movement, what was touching. She tried to center herself, lifting her head up from Max pulling on her lip. Her hand was in his hair, shirt ridden up where his hand was pressed against her back. She was immediately distracted by him taking the free moment to kiss under her jawline. She swallowed a groan as she tried to keep herself on the surface, realizing he had one hand tight at her side where her leg pressed against him, his thumb hooked under the fabric at her hip. She could feel herself being pulled back under. She just needed a moment, a second to breath, just to regain herself, but she couldn’t maintain focus, distracted by his hand wrapping further around to the underside of thigh to pull her in closer. She finally had to forcibly tear herself away, vocally protesting to herself as she pushed her hand against his chest.

Max immediately backed away, giving out an alarmed “no…”. His hand flew up to her cheek as he searched for some imaginary threat. She sat there still panting, brow furrowed at his reaction, becoming aware of how battered and bruised her lips felt.

She stared at him across from her. She suddenly felt so frustrated, them both sitting there, stalled after all that time. Frustrated and angry at how quickly something could make her lose all control, make her ravenous instead of calm and steady. He was right there in front of her. It was simple. She knew exactly what they both wanted, needed, and she could just extinguish it, get it over with, get back to being centered instead of desperately grasping at something to the point she was totally lost and disoriented.

She looked at him across from her, vulnerable as his hand fell to her neck to reflexively feel her pulse, still trying to catch his breath. He never showed it, how much he wanted her, but he looked just as vulnerable, distracted just like all the others before him. She started to feel calmer, knowing that vulnerability on the other side as her hardened confidence came back to reassure her.

She gave him a sharp push, causing him to fall back in surprise, a exclamation in pain as his knee bent under the brace. She ignored it and moved on, straddling him as she began to kiss him again. Max was still trying to shake off the images, giving a surprised grunt as he raised his hands to her hips to try and catch up. She continue to barreled through, kissing him aggressively as she forced his hands off her and back to the floor. Her fingers briefly brushed the scarred hole on the back of his hand but she tuned it out and kept going. He was trying to slow her down, his breath ragged as she tried to rush through. She could feel his half-hearted attempt to resist the pace, leaning back from the kiss but still returning it each time she pressed on. She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck to pull him in closer, briefly noticing the lines of the brand on his neck. _Ignore it_ , she urged herself, rushing to outpace the reminders of familiarity, instead abruptly sliding a hand between his legs. He immediately reached up to stop her, his strong grip holding her wrist as he knew exactly what she was trying to do. He looked on the edge of being stern. Her lip twitched near a smirk, countering with a tug on his ear as she arched her back to drive her hips in closer. His hand dropped slightly, and she continued to nestle into his neck, trying to maintain her onslaught while distracted by the fact that she recognized his scent, that he smelled familiar, that it was Max. He gave one last attempt, managing to mumble a pleading “Furiosa…”, as he tried to snap her out of it.

She continued for a moment but then sighed, stopping her offensive as she dropped her head to lean it against him. Her hand still hung on the back of his neck, cradling it there in apology as he tried to catch his breath, Furiosa shifting to give him space.

Max shook his head, nodded it, then shook it again, clearing his throat awkwardly as he tried to gather himself. He glanced up at her, cleared his throat again as he turned to looked around the car. She watched him curiously as he distractedly rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, trying to figure out what to do. He looked … flustered, and she suddenly felt so much affection for him as he muttered something uncertainly.

It was late by now, the sound of thunder growing distant as the storm had begun to pass. Finally Max leaned over to clear out the bed space, making more room as he pulled out a blanket. He motioned her towards it, and she looked at it incredulously. Two seconds ago the last thing on her mind had been sleep.

She realized she was cold though as a chill ran through her. He waited patiently, holding open the blanket for her, and she finally obliged, stripping down to her bare under layers, Max slipping off his brace and leather pants to climb in after her. She made room for him, leaning on her side to fall in the crook of his shoulder. They lay there side by side in the cramped space, staring awkwardly at the ceiling, skin warm and dry compared to the cold mud-soaked swim earlier. Furiosa suddenly realized she was exhausted, the swim and the emotional rollercoaster catching up to her. She lay there noting the feeling of comfort as she started to relax, the thunder rolling off to distance outside.

\---  
Furiosa must have fallen asleep. It was night, the storm had passed, the sky now clear with light from a half moon filtering in. She could tell Max was awake next to her, likely unable to sleep as usual. Out of habit she turned towards him to offer up her wrist. He took her hand, his thumb briefly rubbing the spot near her pulse, but instead he lifted her hand to his lips as he stared up at the ceiling, thinking.

She watched him as he turned his face into her palm, her breath getting shallow again at the unpredictable. She felt his other hand behind her trace the line of her back, fingertips skimming the depression between her spine and the thin line of muscle running along side it.

Their skin was warm and dry under the blanket, comfortable but with a certain buzzing energy. She felt so easy there, her legs laying against his, occasionally hitting cold feet. Sex suddenly felt like the most natural thing in the world, just move an inch and the momentum would take over. His hand moved from tracing her back to open wide and flat as he pushed the surface of his palm flat against her skin, hand stretching from the last of her ribs to the top of her hip bone. He pressed it in tight, and she wasn’t sure if he was trying to create as much contact as possible, or trying to hold her there at a safe distance. It just felt like it should be so natural, just had to let it happen. She just didn’t know how to do this right. She looked up to watch him as he played with her hand against his lips, contemplating something as they lay there.

She finally broke the silence, “Max…”

He relented, mind made up, turning towards her as he pulled her hand to wrap around his shoulder. She waited expectantly as he leaned in, kissing her forehead as she sighed impatiently. He moved down to the bridge of her nose, her cheekbone, finally coming to rest on her lips. They kissed in a long, slow pull, exhaling in a deep sigh. She resisted the urge to rush through, instead relaxing under his fingers as they moved from her neck down to her waist and hips. His thumb traced the inside of her hip bone, teetering over the edge of her waist to let his fingers fall onto her exposed stomach.

She felt her stomach tighten, but then leaned back to let him continue, hand trailing down her exposed belly to the start of her hip. He drifted down along the toned line of muscle on top of her leg, letting his hand back up to skim along the inside of her thigh. She gave a sharp breath under the kiss as his hand moved between her legs, staying there with increasing pressure as his fingers massage her. Her hand moved down to rest on top of his, wanting the reassurance of control but ending up encouraging him, adding more force as he continued. She could feel the buildup, trying to let herself enjoy it as the tension started to hound her, made her want to squirm in small torment. He leaned back to kiss her arched neck, and she unconsciously ended up wrapping a leg around him, turning to meet him. She pressed up against him instead of his hand, and he gave a sharp exhale, his hand coming out to brace himself against the side of the car as she reflexively moved against him.

His hand came back to her hip to move with her, stifling a groan, and they were suddenly both in a hurry, reaching for each other as they took off the last bits of clothes. She was enjoying the feeling the his bare skin between hers as she moved both legs around his, centering them. He gave her one last confirmatory look, finally coming into her as she gave a sharp inhale. She felt the satisfying discomfort as she took him in, angling herself up against the pressure.

Max let out a ragged breath in return as he pushed deeper, nuzzling into her neck before easing back out. They repeated, again, falling into a steady deep movement, and she let herself savor it, enjoying the fullness as she wrapped her legs tighter around him. She felt his restless energy start to grow, his need to go faster as his breath came out more ragged.

Sensing he was about to lose control, she sat them up, resting him back with her on top as she set the pace. She comfortingly kept a hand wrapped around the back of his neck as they moved along together, letting the tension rebuild to sustain it. She felt herself grow more excited, a dull ache becoming more focused as she tried to hold steady from the increasing pace. She was kissing him as he pulled her hips in tight, giving her a tug at just the right angle when she unguardedly called out.

Max lost it then, roughly wrapping his arms around her to lift her up as she felt another wave of energy, trying to catch her breath. _They can’t BOTH lose control_ she thought, alarmed, as he turned to push them against a pile in the corner. Furiosa tried to maintain composure and move a sharp object out of the way for them, completely fumbling it instead as he moved to kiss her. They fell haphazardly onto the pile, objects clattering to the floor around them. She stared back at him, more hungrily than she meant to, as she centered herself back underneath him, pulling him down to reconnect. He was kissing her as he rounded his back to come into her again, harder and more persistent now. She was trying to keep her head above water for them both, but struggling to hold back, the steady friction hitting her at just the right point as she stifled her increasingly panting breath. Her fingers dug into his shoulder as he continued relentlessly, pulling her hips in gruffly as he lost all restraint after months of buildup. She was right on the edge, all the tension focusing as she tried to hold on for them both, her body shouting for release. She couldn’t last much longer, finally purposefully arching her back, pushing hard into him. Max gripped her hard, coming with a sharp exclamation as he collapsed on top of her, crumbling and completely spent.

They both lay there in a pile, Max’s hand moving to rest on the pulse of her neck as she buried a hand in his damp hair. She stared up at the ceiling with his weight still resting on top of her. _I'm going to want more of this_ , she realized, still catching her breath.


	41. Chapter 41

Furiosa’s blackened body lay in front of him, tiny blades coming out of the darkness to glance off the hardened surface. The vein of red flowed between them, pale flesh starting to spread to take over the blackened armor. He felt relief as she turned back to life, the warm glow of heartbeat pulsing from underneath. 

The little knives kept their attack from the darkness though, now hitting her vulnerable flesh. Max began to panic as cuts of red began to appear, the blood leaking back out. He tried to fend off the multiple small assaults, but there were too many. She seemed oddly calm, contentedly dabbing at the accumulating cuts, enjoying watching them heal. Looking up at him, she lifted her still incomplete arm as she gently asked him for more. 

But he couldn’t...he couldn't do both. If he gave more he would be too weak to fend them off. She patiently held out her arm as he looked back at her in panic.

\--------

Max’s eyes snapped open, laying still as he tried as usual to slow his heart rate. The space inside the car was oddly quiet as he stared up at the blank ceiling. He finally peered around his familiar bed space, the familiar collection of scavenged goods walling him in. 

Slowly, signs of her began to assert themselves: belt buckle shoved in the corner, rifle resting to the side, blanket still rumpled in the empty space next to him. He sat up, bare chested and still naked under the blanket, his clothes nowhere in sight. He rubbed his face as he tried to gather himself, facing the memories of the night before. Finally letting out a breath, he moved to open the trunk door.

The early morning sun made him squint. There was a chill in the air, his feet swinging to the ground to feel cool sand underneath. Their clothes were laying out, already washed of the mud and just beginning to dry. Pulling on his pants he looked around, light glinting off the river that had calmed to a steady current overnight. 

He saw her then, down in the protection of the eddy as she stood in the water, intermittently diving in as she practiced swimming. It was calming, to see her there, and to his surprise his lip twitched up a notch as he turned to rifle through the trunk. Grabbing some rope and a blanket, he dug into a bag to find anything else of use. As his hand hit a large canister, it took him a moment to remember what it was before he smiled at the nearly forgotten treasure, giving a shake of his head at the appropriateness of the occasion. With a final dive into the trunk, he grabbed an extra makeshift cup, shaking it out before gathering everything to sit at the edge of the bank where he could guard the last bit of safety before the more dangerous rapids. 

Max set up there, tying something buoyant to the end of the rope as he watched Furiosa test herself in the current. She struggled for a second, nearly washed downstream before quickly correcting herself. Max relaxed back when she pulled herself to safety, leaving the rope lying next to him as insurance as he went about the old habits. Grabbing a dented pot, he filled it with river water and patiently waited for it to boil over a small fire. 

He sat and watched as she kept testing herself in the water, trying a few more strokes with the heavy prosthetic. Finally seeming to have enough, she stole a glance over at him before standing up to walk out of the water. Her expression was cautious as she came to meet him, the thin layer of white fabric wrapped back around her to protect her from the tight binding straps.  

Max silently made room on the small seat of driftwood, holding up the blanket as she took it to sit down next to him. He reached behind to grab something, returning to hand her a cup. “Sorry...no mother’s milk or sugar” he smirked as she took it from him with a questioning glance. “Coffee,” he explained simply. 

Furiosa took a sniff then followed with a sip. Her nose immediately wrinkled at the bitterness. He smiled, not really surprised at her distaste as he enjoyed another sip of his own, Furiosa tentatively trying it again. 

They both sat watching the river, the cup warm on the hands in the cool of the morning. Across the river, bits of movement could start to be seen. Tentatively, animals began coming out from deep in their borrowers, creeping down to the edge of the water. Furiosa and Max both watched in fascination at the amount of life previously hidden in the wasteland, now coming out in truce to gather at the watering hole. The water, and all the animals with it, would likely be gone in a day or to, sucked back up by the sand to hibernate below.

Max felt her relax next to him as she watched, his attention pulled back as one long bare leg unconsciously leaned against him. It physically pained him to have her sitting so close, and his eyes drifted down to their feet, half-buried in the sand to hide from the cold.  It reminded him of a time when he so casually sat on a beach, and he was left grimacing at the comparison. Furiosa followed his gaze, the sand shifting as her foot twitched, inadvertently nestling deeper to tuck back behind his foot.

He stared down at her ankle nearly wrapped around his and gave out a small pained noise, sitting back to shift uncomfortably. The feeling of hunger or pain he could bury himself in, but this need was far too pleasant. It became clear that they hadn’t just been getting something out of their systems, that it was just the start of something. He forced himself to sit up, tearing his eyes away as he tried to gather himself.

“We should probably be more careful in the future” he finally said, making himself say something outloud as he was still processing everything in his head. 

She blinked and glanced up at him, studying his face as she tried to understand his meaning, reading the the undercurrent of wanting underneath.

“I can’t have a baby.” she said matter-of-factly, surprised to be stating an old shame so plainly as she looked down into her cup of coffee. She was quiet as she peered at the bitter liquid, studying it for a bit as she seemed to be remembering something. “I used to assume it was the radiation or just me….But now I’m pretty sure my mother gave me something in the first days we were taken, to make sure nothing…” she corrected “no one...ever would hold me back from trying to escape. It made me sick for days. I didn’t get it at the time, I was old enough to guess she was trying to end us both out of mercy, and had just failed….But now all I can think about is how she didn't want me stuck in the same position she was in, how I was her anchor, how she would have gotten away if she didn’t have to worry about me. She must have been thinking of that as she gave me that tea.”

Max was silent for a bit, looking at her two hands cradling the side of the cup, one hand slender and warm, the other hard and metallic. Struggling to find the right words, he finally started to say something in an attempt at consolation. 

“I never regretted having a kid, a family...even after everything that’s happened.” He looked out, somewhere between a smile and a grimace. “You just fall madly in love, and you’ll want nothing more than to do everything for them, no regrets.” He paused, frowning, then “I just can't imagine letting something like that get started again, not now, here” he said, squinting at the wasteland. He saw her blank expression in response, the look of being accustomed to accepting the lack of hope. He paused, finally forcing himself to admit it out loud “...But it's been too late for a while now.” 

She blinked, still staring out at river “I tried...I thought I could try, it just didn’t fit.”

“I think you’re doing all right.” he gave her a small smile. She glanced up and couldn't help but smile back, but still seemed distracted, brooding over something. His tone became more serious, “He was irresponsible with it...he wanted to feel important more than anything else” it seemed to anger him as he said it. 

She looked over at him, studying him openly, her brow furrowed as she thought outloud.  “I thought at first that you were just a hint of what could be outside the citadel, what people could be like everywhere but there...but it was just you.” 

Her bluntness made him swallow. It was like she didn’t know when to let herself be self-conscious. It just wasn’t in her.  It mystified him how she could still be so composed, so sane. “How...how did you hold out hope for so long?...for home, without totally losing it?”

Furiosa sighed, lifting her head back up as she shook it.  “Didn’t...after years of trying I had given up.  I learned how to live at the citadel...its currency.” The last bit she spat bitterly. “Then one day, I was out with a scavenger party, the warboys brought back a new bride for Joe. I recognized that she had come from the Green Place. All that time, it had still been there, waiting, just a little farther. In hindsight I should have recognized that there was a reason she was in the wasteland instead of home, that it was already dying...I meant to get her out, let her guide me back, but I took too many risks, wasn’t patient, and we were all attacked by buzzards.” She recounted, leaning her elbows on her legs as she shifted her weight away from him.  “I lost the girl... lost my arm. Took me a long time to get back from that. The only thing that drove me, pushed me to relearn everything, was knowing home was still there.” 

She sighed again, “but then came the famine, then the wars. I won battles for him, was fearless, all so I could clear the roads and get back home. I just took so long…” her brow became furrowed at that last bit. “I don’t know why. I suppose I got used to finally having something, some security. There was power there, if you got to the top...and some had helped me, been kind, in their own way.” she paused, shook her head as she corrected herself, “but really, the more I did to get home, the more I worried I wouldn’t be welcome. They would take one look at me and be disgusted at the things I had done.” Here she paused, finally admitting something out loud.  “I helped the girls in part to piss off Joe...but I suppose I also thought that if I came home having rescued a bunch of girls, they wouldn’t notice that I had traded just as many.”

Max studied her, noting how she was separating herself from his as she said it, avoiding looking at him as she shifted her body weight off of him, feet tucked in the sand. 

“You can have more than one reason for doing something…” he said slowly. “but I don’t think it's an accident that it happened to be the right thing in the end. You could have abandoned them at multiple times.” 

She still didn't respond, looking pensive as she continued to process something. He tried a new tack. “I, for example, partly turned back to help you all because I thought you were attractive”, he casually raised his cup up for another sip as he tried to hide his expression. 

Furiosa finally reacted, raising an eyebrow in surprise “I wouldn’t believe that for a second”. Her lip slipped into an incredulous half-smile as she noticed him trying to hide a smirk. “You were pretty slow to do anything about it.”

“I was playing the long game” he extended his arm in mock emphasis. She gave a snort in return as she leaned back next to him, Max taking her cup, finishing the last swig of coffee. 

“I can’t believe you like that stuff” she said as she rested her head against him. 

“Oh it’s terrible” he said with absolute pleasure. He set down both the cups as his hand went to play with the lines of her prosthetic resting on his leg. 

He fiddled with the piece of rubber she had tried to add for buoyancy. “Want me to try and fix this? Make it float?”

She gave a noncommittal response, happy to sit there instead as she absentmindedly pressed her lips into his bare shoulder. He smiled, but stood up anyways as she gave a huff of disappointment, turning to hold out his hand to beckon her up. She looked at him for a moment, finally taking his hand and letting him help her up. 

They stood in the shallow water, Furiosa trying to stand still as Max gently tugged at the cold clunky metal; she could feel him close as he leaned in to fidget with some screws. The toughened skin of his hand rested on the shelf of her hip, fingers at the edge of her stomach as he tried to gain purchase on a bit of jagged metal. She felt the absence of his touch as he moved his remaining hand to her prosthetic, cold empty air hitting where he had just rested at her hip. They were now separated by a heap of dead steel and leather, the tough thick straps cutting across her torso, guarding and numbing soft sensitive flesh underneath where it implanted itself slowly over decades. She remembered the feeling of night before, the sensitive nerves instead exposed down to her core. 

She looked up at the scene in front of them, taking in the new landscape as Max continued to fiddle.  The river had formed a steady moat around their little spot of land, further sealed off by the unscalable wall of rock behind them. They were effectively on their own little island, surrounded by a steady flow of water; even the scurrying animals on the other bank couldn’t get to them. She felt safe and unencumbered for the first time in a long time, the cold steel now seeming so out of place, heavy as it hung there, a useful tool but not living, dull to any sensation of touch.

She angled her head to eye Max close behind her, still fidgeting away while lost in his human eccentricities, stalling as he enjoyed the safe excuse for closeness. She felt her breath slow as she looked at him.  “I don’t want this on right now” she finally said flatly.

Max froze, looking up at her, a screwdriver still awkwardly clamped in his mouth. After a moment he nodded, tucking the tool away as he reached more deliberately to the buckles at her front. His arms reached around her as he stepped in closer, when she just sank the rest of the way into him, letting his arms wrap around as he gave out a sigh, forgetting about the buckles. He walked them back to the shore as she relaxed against him with her back pressed into his chest, tucked neatly between the breadth of his shoulders. 

They bumped into the edge of their previous seat and Furiosa turned to face him. He couldn’t help but push against her into the wall of driftwood, head bowed into her neck as she caught a breath. It didn’t last long before she traced a slender finger along his chin, tilting it up to face each other. 

He kissed her, resigned to it as she she leaned back onto the half-buried pile of driftwood, shifting to lay back as she walked her elbows back along crumbled blanket and sand. She stretched out, cat-like, enjoying the feeling of stretch in her muscles, the cool air running over the wet fabric as Max undid the tough leather straps. With an arch of her back, she let him tear out the remaining windings of straps and fabric wrapped around her back, sliding them out as she relaxed back down.  Goosebumps freckled her flesh and she felt the growing anticipation from the night before while he curiously traced the scars on her torso, bending forward to kiss the permanently bruised spots on her rib cage where the straps had dug in. She wasn’t used to all the attention being on her, but she wanted to enjoy it, relaxing into it as Max continued down her stomach. 

He had just left her hip bones when he moved to plant a kiss square between her legs atop the still remaining white fabric. She involuntarily started in surprise, but Max nudged her back down, placing a single fingertip atop her outstretched palm to tell her to stay there. She acquiesced, laying back down, when he suddenly wrenched her by the hips to the lip of the ledge, roughly pulling her across the grating sand for a second as she sucked in a breath in surprise. She gave him a half-hearted attempt at a dirty look as removed her bottom layers past her hips and off her legs, quieting as his hand ran back up to spread the length of her leg. He kissed the inside of her thigh before moving between her legs, his mouth warm on her bare skin as the rest of her still shivered. 

She could feel her face growing more flush as he continued, the need to fidget growing as her body responded in a way she for once couldn’t disagree with. A leg unconsciously started to press against him kneeling before her, looking for added purchase, and he quickly took it and pinned it against his shoulder to give her more pressure. 

Her breath was getting faster, shallow, back arching as she watched herself coming close. He seemed so far away though, she wanted his weight on top of her like before. With her hand distractedly buried in his hair, she tried to give im a small tug to encourage him up, but he ignored her, going harder as she nearly called out, instead finally panting out an exasperated “Max!”. Getting the message, he seemed happy to oblige, briefly letting his hand take over on her as he came up to meet her, kissing her neck as he finally came into her.  It didn’t take long now as he moved against her, and she watched as her entire body tensed in a wave then relax as she let herself come underneath him.

Max slowed briefly, checking in with her as he took her hand to kiss the inside of her palm. Pleasantly relaxed there, she watched him as he continued with her hand, outstretching it to grasp a piece of driftwood past her head, telling her to brace herself with it.  Fascinated by what he would do next, she let him continue as he pulled her hips in closer, continuing instead of stopping. She let the feeling of sensitivity pass as he moved slowly against her at first, the tension quickly starting to rebuild. Her hand grasped the driftwood tighter as she started to angle her hips to meet him, just getting more excited as she watched his breath grow ragged in response. They were so open and exposed there, and it was intoxicating combined with the feeling of safety for the first time in a long time. They both grew less polite as they realized they could let loose and act without restraint. All of her attention was on his hand desperately gripping her hip with every increasingly urgent move, only briefly registering how she was now getting slammed against the pile of driftwood behind her as she used whatever she could to drive her hips in closer to him. Max barged forward, grasping a hand on top of hers on the driftwood as he wrapped the other around her waist to suddenly pull her in tighter. She came again without even a thought on hesitating, stretching out under him as it coursed through her. He followed soon after, and they both collapsed in a sweaty pile, every ounce of tension extinguished from both of them.

Furiosa made a half-hearted attempt to stroke his back in comfort, but her hand just flopped back down to her side as they both lay there panting. Eventually she managed to pick her head up to glance at the etchings on his back her hand had brushed against. She suddenly laughed at one phrase she managed to read, Max managing enough energy for a questioning grunt, but she just shook her head as she lay back down, lying in comfort under the blanket of his weight.

\------

Later they both headed back to the river to enjoy the water before it was sucked back into the sand. Every container available had been filled with water for the road ahead, an extra space made in Max’s car as they waited for the water to receded to cross back over. They had nothing to do now but wait. Furiosa bobbed in the water, sinking down low to let the water fill the foreground of everything around her. She looked over and caught his eye, holding his gaze as they both gave recognition to the moment. Max gave a small grimace of a smile, looking resigned to the terror of being content. 

Attempting to finish working on her prosthetic, Max stood next to her in the water as he held her mechanical arm in one hand. They both froze as a shadow swooped over them. Looking up, a winged expanse briefly blocked out the sun, gently casting down towards them. Following it, they saw two other hang glider type contraptions coming from the seemingly impenetrable cliffs behind them, small dots of people descending from ropes up high; women and families coming with containers for the water. 

Two men were already upon them, crossbows raised in anxious but steady hands, odd strips of rubber wrapped around their feet. The first man motioned with his crossbrow “Up, hands up” he said as he kept a safe distance.

They both complied with resignation, Furiosa raising her one hand, Max left to raise Furiosa’s prosthetic arm with his own.  

Taking some tense shuffling steps to better flank them, the man took his eye from the site just long enough to bark a quick question “Where do you come from?” 

“Citadel” Furiosa calmly responded with a nod to the North, eyeing him the whole time. 

Two men froze at that, looking at each other in astonished recognition. “Prinsessa?” one asked the other as the other nodded back in affirmation, wide-eyed. Turning back to them, they gestured to the cliff behind them. 

“You...you come with us.” they demanded with a twitch of the crossbow. 

Behind her, Max sighed, and she looked over at their clothes and weapons just out of reach on the shore. _Oh_ _God dammit_ she cursed to herself as more of this new community poured over the cliff. 

  
  



End file.
